TVEoM: The Venetian Eyes of Mars
by Sydney Z. Hampshire
Summary: Based around Vincent Valentine's absence from the KH series.
1. Preface

**Preface  
**  
The superior's golden eyes narrowed under his cowl, glaring at the remains of his organisation, seven now that five were long gone and number XIII was 'missing', it had been a hard blow to Organisation XIII to loose so many of so few in such a short time, they had been powerful allies… Or maybe not so powerful, they'd fallen quickly under the strength of the Keyblade.

Number VII, sitting prim on his high backed, alabaster chair twitched and blinked his yellow eyes at number I, who's grip was rapidly tightening on his armrests, Saїx scowled, "Shut up!" he snapped, "You are a bunch of animals, can you not see your superior is addressing you!?" Xemnas shifted, watching Saїx with renewed interest, "Listen to him!" the arguments and complaints had halted, they didn't restart, instead the eyes of the other organisation members trailed back from Saїx to Xemnas. Number VII settled back in his seat.

"Thank you, VII. Now I know you are all opposed to my plan for this man; you are all taking the view that a Somebody can not help us, Nobodies, however—"  
"If he holds connections with the Keyblade Welder companions, might this not be entrapment?"  
"Sharp as eva Lux!"  
"Thank you, Xigbar."  
"X, you make a valid point, but it would seem our man considers his friends to be of less importance than his own 'sins' whatever they may be," a murmur rippled around the hall, "He will go out of his way in attempts to make up for those sins."  
"Why do we need him?" VIII called out, the others turned to look at him, "Why's he so special?"  
"He holds great power with him, and he is from another world, one which is so separate from any other in this universe that we have no access to it, his companions are also from that world, but his connection to it, unlike theirs, remains, tenuous though it is. He is the link between the two worlds, the longer he remains in this world however, the weaker the link becomes, he is getting closer to his friends, and that is further aggravating the scenario, if we wait too long soon their only way back will be when the wizard opens a new gateway, but if we get to him soon we can use his link to get to their world, any action will further open the path. Their world is highly populated, or rather; it is larger, with more room for people, more hearts.  
"He is an intelligent fellow, X, I shall send you to fetch him, he currently resides in the Underworld, but something has disturbed him, he maybe on the move, follow him, if need be, to any world he may go to, reach him and bring him over to our cause before his friends find him and turn him against us."  
"I shall leave after him at once, may I enquire as to his name?"  
"The man we are after is called Vincent Valentine."  
"Valentine," Xigbar sneered, "How very fitting for our purposes."


	2. The Great Maw

Chapter One  
The Great Maw

It was dark.

That was the first thing he noticed.

The second thing was that he was laying on cold, gravely, ground.

He groaned sitting up and rubbing the heels of this hands against his eyes, scrubbing away the gritty feeling left there, dropping his hands to the ground Cid peered past the dirt and blurriness of his vision to look around; it was night time, the sky was clear and full of stars -but there was no moon- he was in a valley devoid of planet life but full of fallen rocks, the sides of the valley and the floor was rock, it was purple and blue, slate, by the shards digging into his knees and stuck against his numb face. It was very, very, cold and Cid couldn't remember why he was here.

He sat huddled over for sometime, hugging his legs tucked up to his chest and hanging onto fleeing memories, "Cid Highwind," he said, "Captain of the airship Highwind, "I'm here because…" he frowned, "Damn, I don't have a clue… Where is here?" he looked up from his boots, "It's meant to be Radiant Gardens," tugging his coat closer, "But I ain't there, unless something's happened, or whoever named it is damn cynical," he snorted and got to his feet, as he'd sat here time had moved on, as it does, and a fog was drawing in, now it was damp and cold, but in the far distance an orange glow lit the fog from the inside, and, unless it was already reaching sunrise, that meant a town or a city, or a large fire or something, and something was better than the nothing of right now. Cid stuffed his hands in his pockets and started to walk, head down, still thinking and wrangling memories from his cloudy mind. Feels like lard, he scowled, Can't think for shit.

After only 20 minutes of walking Cid stopped again, blinking and turning his head this way and that, but the odd strangled sound he'd heard didn't come again, and with a shrug he started off again, only to stop in his tracks, "Hay! Hay wait up!" he looked over his shoulder, scrambling over the rockslide that had just hindered his path, was a slender figure, hurrying to catch up, "Wait damn it!" he frowned, having not moved an inch. "Fine!" he called back, "Hurry up!!"

"…Yuffie."

The girl, leaning on her thighs and gasping for breath in the cool night air looked up at him, "You remember? Good! I didn't remember your name for ages! Whatever happened to our memories is obviously fading now, eh?" she grinned manically and Cid shrugged off his coat, "Guess so," he said, offering it to her, "Cold?"

The mist evaporated with the dawn, and the cold began to lift, but it took with it the two trudging walkers' energy and determination, particularly as the valley was turning away from where Cid had seen the orange light the night before, and now he didn't know where he was aiming for, and Yuffie hugging herself and following quietly -for the first time in hours- seemed to be depending on him to find a way out of here.

"Cid, are we lost?" he looked back at her, "Because my feet hurt, and I'm tired."

He frowned and tried not to nod, "Yeah," he mumbled, "I can't see a direction without that light, so unless something happens, I think we're gonna have to wait for the fog again," he looked way at Yuffie's expression, "What!? But we'll freeze!"

"Didn't freeze last night, so who says we will tonight? Shit, I thought ya were more positive than that! But look, I remember that," he pointed to a long outcrop of rock spearing out over the valley, "The light was beyond that, if we can get there today and rest up, we can continue tomorrow."

"Yeah!" she perked up, "Heck, we might even see civilisation from there, come on, Cid!"

"Hoi!" he called after her as she scooted past, "I thought ya feet fucken hurt!?"

"Better now!"

"Shit…" he took off after her.

They'd been walking for far longer that day than either of them had realised, even though Cid had quickly noticed that with the cold air, that hadn't got much better with day, and time passing quickly through the day, it would seem to be early Winter, or very early Spring, either way, it was a concern, that last night might have been a fluke, the last warm night of the year, and if this was Winter, it really had been mild without cloud cover. That wasn't bothering him now though, what was bothering him now was the cut on his arm, it wasn't clotting and his handkerchief was soaked through with dark blood.

Climbing up the shale valley walls had been tricky, Yuffie, lighter and nimble had hopped up the loose rock, but one wrong footstep and the rock had shifted under Cid, sending him flying backwards and slamming him into the sharp stones, a shard had sliced into him, at the time he had just been glad he'd got away without a broken neck, but now he was starting to curse the throbbing cut. They had, however, gotten to the outcrop without much other hardship, just as the sun had started to sink below the high horizon.

Yuffie was perched on the edge, bare legs swinging in the air, Cid sat back, leaning against a crystalline structure jutting out of the rock, he was tired and his stomach felt tight, he was also hard pressed to figure out why: was it the blood starting to trickle down his arm, or the metallic smell that filled his nostrils and made the bile rise in his throat, now he knew -didn't remember, but did know- that he'd smelt that smell before, and was currently associating it with unpleasant things and painful times.  
A few days later Cid would return here, and beable to put a name to the smell, because those crystals were strangely like natural materia deposits.

Cid dozed as it grew colder, and only woke up again when he felt Yuffie curl up at his side, "'m cold," she said and Cid hugged her closer, though it made him wince when the almost-but-not-quite knitted cut flexed. If he was going to be cold tonight, Yuffie was going to be freezing.

"Hoi, hoi, gal, wake up," he shook her, and the movement made motes of light dance in front of his eyes, his arm was still shining with new blood, "There's cloud cover," Yuffie, shivering and yawning looked up at the dull orange glow, overhead now, "I think we're close to the light source," Cid said, "Come on, help me up," he chuckled, Yuffie shook her head but pulled him up anyway and together, hungry, cold and tired, they hobbled away from the valley down a dark canyon, toothy crystals lined it's walls.

"…Shit."

"Yeah. I think we found the light source."

"Mmn. Still don't look like 'Radiant Gardens' to me though."

"Hay! Hay! Up here!"

"Who's that? Yuffie pointed upwards, a young woman with a voluptuous bosom, was bouncing up and down waving to them, "Oh! Oh it's Tifa!" Yuffie tore away from Cid's side and started to bound up the rock sides to the higher levels where the woman was. Cursing and muttering under his breath, Cid followed, "Damn it," he growled, "Of all the people to meet us, bet I get a bollocking, probably my fault Yuffie and I were together so long… Bah! We were meant to have all shown up together, but noooo…"


	3. An Old Fox

Chapter Two  
An Old Fox

_  
"Aie! He's going to be caught!"  
"He'll be fine."  
"But that helicopter… You said it'd follow__** us**__!"_

"Where'd he go?"

They hadn't stopped arguing, they hadn't stopped for… Cid checked the clock for the 10th time in nearly the same number of minutes, he scowled, it hadn't moved, stomping over to it he flicked the face, it had stopped. He turned back and the scowl deepened when he met the hazelnut eyes of the brunette woman who's look, if looks could kill, should have been locked up for life some time ago for mass murder, Cid's constitution was strong however, her killer attempts were quashed and the pilot stalked past her and back to the window, where a watery sun leaked though the panes, slipped lethargically off the window seat and dropped to the floorboards, where it sat, a messy puddle on the floor. Cid stepped in it to reach the seat, light splashed across his boot before curling up on his lap like a warm cat.

"I don't believe this," Tifa said for the umpteenth time, she'd moved since the last time she'd said it though, moved from not believing that Cloud didn't have a problem with this non-issue the martial artist was blowing out of all proportion, to now not believing that Merlin didn't have another room.

Cid had been right, he **had** got a bollocking from Tifa, but she'd relented when his argument turned out to be far more persuading than she'd anticipated; they had after all, not chosen to be dumped out in the middle of nowhere thanks to shaky magic spells, they were meant to have all appeared together at Merlin's place, where they were now, arguing, because it had all been arranged, that due to Cid's mechanical prowess, he'd be staying here with Merlin, Cid had grumbled when Tifa mentioned the computer, saying that was technical PC work, not mechanics.  
"Well if you can't handle it…"  
"I can handle that! It's just ya got ya terms wrong is all!" but then Yuffie, who was meant to stay with Tifa, suddenly turned around and refused to leave Cid, and while it was an old bunk bed in Merlin's spare room, Tifa seemed horrified at the idea and thus the argument had started. Strangely enough, Cid, who was quick enough to realise early on he wasn't getting a say in this, was getting very much the short end of the stick and according to Miss Lockheart, that Yuffie wanted to stay here with him, must be his fault.

Cloud leaning against the wall, most untidily not quite in the corner, made perfectly sensible comments that were taken and made all muddled up by Tifa or Yuffie, as women were prone to do to sensible comments, Merlin was watching the exchanges like a game of fast tennis, and Archimedes was huddled up in the rafters complaining about the entire thing, it seemed he was trying to sleep. Cid had just given up entirely, he didn't mind having Yuffie here, she was good company though they argued, but he didn't see why the young woman had to be so determined about it. He watched out of the window as time wandered by, got lost down a dead end street and wandered back again, occasionally a small Heartless would blink it's lamp like eyes at him from the shadows opposite and just around the corner, Cid's mind wondered what could keep the Heartless out, some kind of sensor maybe…

"Oooh! I don't understand you, you are being totally unreasonable!" Tifa stormed out, and Cloud sighed heavily.  
"Well then!" Merlin exclaimed, clapping his hands together, "Did we come to an agreement?"  
"No," the blonde warrior said, "Why are you two so determined to stay together?"  
"Us two!? I've said fuck all!"  
"Yuffie then."  
"Well I'd just be happier here, besides, Tifa's paranoid, Cid isn't up to anything."  
"So you are intent on proving this to Miss Lockheart?"  
"Humph."  
"Ain't working kid."  
"Well I'm SORRY for trying!"  
Cid shrugged, "Just stay here then, Tifa can't do fuck all to stop ya really."  
"…I heard that Cid."

Eventually it was sorted out, Yuffie and Cid could both stay here, however, Tifa was to hear about it instantly if anything out of the ordinary happened, going by her opinion of 'ordinary', which would probably include ninja and pilot avoiding each other at all costs, and she was allowed to visit anytime without warning to keep an eye on them. Yuffie was stopped from complaining by a surreptitious spell from Merlin and Cid was happy to agree if it meant they could stop this stupidity and get something for lunch, they'd not eaten since they got here.

---

Three days passed without incident, Tifa lurked around the house for a while until Merlin shooed her away so he could continue his current magical experiment. Cid and Yuffie were already safely out the way.

"Hay Cid!" Yuffie yelled through the old carved, slightly split, door,  
"Yeah?"  
"Do you think we actually need to be here?"  
"What!?"  
"Oh for Petes sake… Are you like, dressed yet?"  
"Yeah, heh, unless ya offended by naked feet."

It was morning Merlin was making magic downstairs, Yuffie was sitting on the bare wood stairs in the crooked stairwell leading up to the spare bedroom watching motes from the skylight playing leap-fog on her toes, Cid was getting dressed in the room; actually, to be more precise, he was sitting on the edge of the heavy old bed wrestling with his socks which he was accusing of being in league with the old wizard's shrinking potions. The bunk bed had been the subject of much deliberation on the first night here, firstly because both Yuffie and Cid wanted the top bunk –that was settled when Yuffie explained, with a beat-this smirk, how they both wandered around at night, being such fidgets, and since she was smaller and lighter than he, they'd be less likely to wake each other up if he was on the bottom bunk and she on the top bunk- and secondly because it was wooden, and appeared to be carved out of one piece of wood, no joins could be found, except for the slats which seemed to be pine wood, and the entire thing was noticeably wider than the diminutive door and stair way.  
"Merlin," Cid had said, "Applies magic to the oddest fucken things."

Cid sniffed in answer to Yuffie's question, and she looked over from the small dusty window over looking the back alley, a small red tiled house and part of one of the many walls, "Honestly kid, I don't know, we might be needed, then again, we might not. Ain't getting my hopes up, what can we do, eh? Only Keyblades can destroy Heartless and shit. Dunno why I'm need to work that PC, it's Merlin's, can't he use it?"  
"Apparently not."  
"So what's botherin' ya?"  
"Nothing…"  
"Bull shit," he stood and went to her side, leaning over her to look out the window, "I ain't good with women, and I certainly know nothin' 'bout teenage girls, but I know some shit's got to ya."  
"Heh...I think I'm homesick."  
Cid stuffed his hands into his pockets, "Know that feelin' kid – eh?" he turned to door, "Damn, Tifa's here, why'd she come back?"  
"Oh no! I'm still in my PJs!"

"Out! Out! OUT!"  
"I'm leaving! Sheesh woman! …Oh, mornin' Arieth!"  
"What do you _want_ Tifa?"  
"For you to get dressed, are you _sure_ you don't mind being here?"  
"TIFA!"  
"We'll I'm just saying--"  
"Was that all you wanted to say?"  
"No, of course not! Sora and his friends will be here soon; I wanted to see if you'd go meet them?"  
"…Cid's already dressed! And so are you!"  
"Do you really think it's a good idea to send him to go meet some impressionable kid?" Yuffie didn't look convinced and just pulled a face, "Besides," Tifa decided to try another approach, "You're so much faster and sensible, you'll get Sora here a lot quicker than Cid."  
"Ha! ... Oh fine, I will, I'll get dressed…"  
"Thank you, Yuffie!"

"Looking smart kid, where'd that outfit come from?"  
"Brought it with me!"  
"Hay where ya going, I'm makin' breakfast… Well, tea, Aerith's making breakfast?"  
"I've got to play tour guide for Sora and the other two, we'll be back soon."  
"Oh, okay…" Cid watched her hurry out.

---

Yuffie stood akimbo atop one of the many walls, this one was vibrating softly, and probably held a generator of some sort, below her on the road the Keyblade welder, Sora, and his friends Donald the Duck and Goofy, who was probably a dog, they were wondering at the swirls of light around them.  
"Hay! What's going on!?" that was Donald, Yuffie thought it was time to make her presence known, "That's the town's defence mechanism!" she called down, and they waved up to her, "Yuffie!"  
"Ah? Look out!" strange white writhing creatures, Nobodies, leapt out of the ground and straight for Sora, who had no issue dispatching them, "Hay you guys!" Yuffie jumped down, "Good work, I see you're still in top form!" she dusted her self off,  
Sora grinned and thumped his own chest arrogantly, "What did you expect? Looks like you're doing okay."  
"Well, what did YOU expect?"  
Said Donald; "How are the others?"  
"Great! Cid's being bothered by Tifa though, you'd think she didn't trust him or something!"  
"Hay, Yuffie, have you seen the King and Riku?"  
"Nope," she turned and ran off to the end of the street, "But I had a feeling I'd see _you guys_ again."  
"We may never meet again, but we'll never forget each other."  
"Is that supposed to be Leon?" Yuffie blinked, and the other three laughed, "Oh come one! Everybody's working on stuff over at Merlin's house. C'mon!" she thumbed over her shoulder and ran off, leading them down the street.

Leon had joined the gathering group when they got to the house, Cid was at the PC, he didn't look to happy to be working on it, and it was a miracle he didn't break the keys, "The hell 'ave ya done this thing, Merlin!?"

Sora, Donald and Goofy were a little put out to find that they'd been forgotten by everyone and only just remembered, but Yuffie didn't give them a chance to follow that thought up, and asked where they'd been. It turned out they'd been sleeping, "Where? In cold storage!?" Cid had exclaimed, and the young hero had looked abashed and more than slightly abashed. Aerith was just glad to see them, even if they were focused on other things, "Yeash, they're obsessed," Yuffie hissed into Cid's ear, "That's the second time they've mentioned Riku and the King."  
"That don't make 'em obsessed, kid," but no one knew where the two missing fellows were missing to.  
"Sorry, but we'll try to help if we can, just ask," Aerith smiled, Sora thanked them for the help offered, however Cid just saw it as a chance to pounce on him, he'd been talking with Leon, there was a problem in Hollow Bastion.  
"Don't thank us yet kid!"  
"Hollow Bastion has a problem, a big problem," Leon said,  
"Like, Nobodies, and Heartless?"  
"That's right!" Yuffie beamed, looking far too happy about it.  
"Sound's like you could use our help!"  
They agreed to help, and Leon told them to meet him at the Bailey, just as he left Merlin showed up and declared it was splendid that Sora and the gang had agreed to help and reminded Aerith about cards, 'Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, Honorary Member' said the cards and the gang were happy to receive them before hurrying off to the Bailey.

"Nice kid," Cid said, turning back to the computer as Aerith returned to the small kitchenette, "But not very bright."  
"Oh be nice! Hay… Where's Tifa?"  
"Said she had somethin' to do."  
"Ah… Hay Cid?"  
"Yup?"  
"What ARE you wearing?"  
"…Everything else got nicked for the fucken wash," he shot a glare in Aerith's direction and she giggled nervously.

Clouds had been gathering all day, now they lay heavily upon Hollow Bastion and darkness came early, still Cid had pulled the curtains and lit the lights far earlier than need be, not that anyone complained, Merlin was using a lamp anyway, and Yuffie was already used to this, Cid having done the same thing every night since before they'd met, except when they'd been travelling and sleeping in tents, he didn't seem to mind the dark so much then. Not that Cid would ever say he was afraid of it, and truthfully he wasn't, it just made him remember strange things, or think of strange things, and they were never good, they worried and distressed him. Such things do not make for a good nights sleep.

Tifa and Aerith had come around for dinner, but only because they had to cook, Yuffie would try, but got confused making scrambled eggs on toast, let alone anything more complicated, and Cid's limit was tea, his cooking wasn't all _that_ bad, but he made more mess than food, so it just wasn't worth it. Merlin had never been asked to cook, and he'd not volunteered. Aerith had tended to Cid's arm, which was aching terribly and was ever so tender, he'd had the wound covered up, but in a mild scuffle between Cid and Tifa, where she'd unintentionally hurt him (she'd punched him on the arm, it had been pulled, but had hit the wound), upon hearing his howl and curses she demanded to see his arm, and had called the flower girl over to tend to him. Cid liked Aerith, he didn't like her touch though, her fingers were cold, unhealthy cold, but he had to admit she had healer's hands, cold as death or other wise.  
"Thanks for pulling that punch, Tif," he'd chuckled, but she just shrugged, her back to him as she peered though a gap in the curtains. She was tense. Cloud had been missing all day.

It was just as the girls were going to leave that the roily sky gave way and it began to pour with rain, distant thunder rumbled over the Great Maw. Aerith and Tifa exchanged despairing looks and returned to the sofa, Cid was made to sit up, "Making and old man like me put my feet on this cold floor!? Women! Ya've no kindness in your souls--!"  
"Stop complaining, Cid, and move."  
"Fine, fine!" but he wasn't there long anyway, choosing to retire early and leave Merlin and his owl to deal with the females, "If two women under one roof is the symbol of war then three is the fucken apocalypse," he muttered, "Enjoy ya gossiping, gals, I'd appreciate it if I were left out of it!" but of course he wasn't.

---

"Before anyone says ANYTHING! Yes, I am perfectly happy here; no, Cid has not tried anything and NO, I'm not leaving."  
"Anything else you'd like to say?"  
Yuffie shrugged and sipped her cocoa, "Sorta, but listen, he doesn't know I know, so don't say anything."  
"We won't," Aerith said poking her finger through the bars of the finch cage, they'd showed up the other day, three zebra finches, two of the ordinary colour called Fitch and Thyme and a white one with blushed wings and cheeks called Hash, it was assumed they belonged to Cid and he certainly was looking after them, but no one knew where they were from or why Cid had them. The three small birds sidled away from her with tiny 'peeping' noises.  
"Well," Yuffie said, curling her toes against the rug, "For the last few nights, Cid's been having nightmares, they're not bad I guess, don't wake him up, but… well… I don't know what they're about, but I think it's the same thing that's bothering him during the day, me too! Have you guys got all of your memories, I mean we forgot Sora, why not other people or things?"  
Aerith and Tifa exchanged looks, "I don't _think_ I'm forgetting anything," said Tifa, and Aerith shook her head,  
"It's not, like, obvious, but there is something wrong, like um… I won't always notice; it seems to be around Cid, whatever it is I'm forgetting."  
"Around Cid?"  
"Yeah something is missing, here you try, just think of him, nothing else, try and picture him."  
"Yeah…?"  
"Now try and image ALL of Avalanche, even the guys not here, there is something missing, he's… I dunno, alone I suppose."  
Tifa shrugged, "I think I'm having trouble imagining it like you are," she said, but Aerith frowned, "I... Yes, it's like a shadow, no, the Darkness, isn't it? Not just something missing… Something gone," she hung her head, the other two girls fell silent, it was similar, what the woman was describing, to when they tried to remember Aerith after a certain point in time, up to being in this universe, just nothing, a hole where she was meant to be, at first they didn't remember why this was, when their past returned however, each member of the Avalanche crew in turn had been blighted by a great sadness, knowing, that when they returned to Planet, Aerith would have to leave them once more.

Merlin turned around on his stool, "There is a Darkness in your friend's past," he said, stroking his beard, "One you know of, but the memory of it is locked away, you shall remember it in time I'm sure, but I assure you, because I can see you thinking it, your friend is not 'infected' as it maybe, by the Darkness, it does not taint his mind."  
"So Merlin," Aerith began, "Why is it there?"  
"We all of us have Darkness in our hearts, for some of us it is greater than others, and in many cases it grows with age, the strength of the mind affects the power of the Darkness, for example," he chuckled, "I would have a greater concentration of Darkness in my heart than, say, Yuffie here, who is far younger than myself, yet as you see, I do not succumb to it, because--"  
"Education!" Archimedes hooted, "It's you're going to say!"  
"Yes, yes!" Merlin said, waving the owl away, "Quiet! Yes, education is a great part of it, knowledge helps strengthen the mind, however one must remember the Light, always the Light, and that is why you should not concern yourself over Captain Highwind, he is a creature of Light himself, you yourselves must see that?"  
The girls nodded, "Yeah, of course, well, he's certainly far fonder of daylight than night, but I think we all are, except…" the others turned to look at Tifa, who blinked, "…except… Someone," she frowned, "Nanaki maybe, he's cat like, must be him I'm thinking of." Yuffie stared into her now lukewarm cocoa, _There is more to it than that,_ she thought, _This Darkness, it's got to __**be**__ something, what did he do!?_ her thoughts were cut off by a strangled cry from upstairs.

---

_  
It was dark, it pressed in on all sides and settled on the chest oppressively, there was a heavy moistness to the air that had an earthy smell, in the darkness there was the sound of mud sliding off something and landing on ground nearly at the water table, a thick, nauseating, splat. It was like walking through a graveyard at night, after a funeral has been called off because of a heavy incessant rainstorm, somewhere there is a grave, dark, wet and earthy, empty and you can't see it, only hear the earth slip away, and you won't feel it, not until the ground crumbles away below your feet and you're pitched into the earth. I shivered and hugged myself, glad for the presence of others around me, Cloud, up ahead with an oil lamp and Tifa just behind me with a flickering candle._

"AGH!" Cloud turns to look at me, "Sorry, drip of water down my back," damn thing didn't have to surprise me so much did it!? Fuck I hate that feeling of water dripping down my neck; of course it's just my fucken luck that I should make so much noise, trying to break the silence probably, damn subconscious… Cloud nodded and I can feel_ Tifa's smirk, it's not even been a week and she's pissing me off! Bitch has made up her mind about me, decided I'm a fucken idiot no doubt, or gone all self-righteous about when I yelled at Shera._

"Cloud!" he glances over his shoulder, "We've trooped down stairs ready to fucken fall apart, and now ya leading us into fuck knows what, what the hell are ya hopin' to find down here!?"  
"I don't really know Cid, but there must have been a reason behind all those codes, that note said there was someone down here, but it was old, so I can't imagine anyone locked up is alive any longer," Tifa made an odd sound, "but there maybe something to help us on our mission."  
"…I ain't convinced!"  
"You can go back if you want Cid, were not stopping you," I glanced back at Tifa and scowled, "Or don't you want to?" I squint at the darkness behind her and swallow,  
"I don't want to be here, but someone's gotta look after you kids!" Cloud chuckled and as I turned to face him the bastard closed the shutters on the lamp and suddenly it was all dark, Tifa, who had the only light laughed when I cried out again, I kicked my heel in the direction of her laugh and sent a spray of dirt, mud and loose gravel against her bare legs, she yelped and swore, "Bastard!" she spat, "What was that for!?"  
"Stop it," Cloud's voice came out of the darkness, he must have turned to us because I can see his eyes now, they're glowing green, with a click the lamp shone again, "Cid, don't fight with her, Tifa, stop antagonising him, and both of you keep your voices down, I don't know how stable this place is, I don't want a cave in."

We continued walking, and, when the lamp began to dance in a draught, hurried to find the source, but a stronger gust of air blew out the lights and we all cried out, "FUCK!!"  
"CLOUD!"  
"Hush!"  
I swore again, under my breath this time, but there was a hissing sound of falling earth, pebbles fell around us, and we ran. I guess it was the fucken darkness, it made us panic, either way, it was a moment before I realised I was on my fucken own, and I had no shit like a light, except my lighter and that wouldn't help much, it'd get hot as fuck too and burn me, so I didn't really consider that at all, just carried on walking forwards, least this_ fucken place had smoother floors._

I think there is fucken gas down here or something! It's getting harder to breathe, but then again, it might just be the darkness, or, or maybe I'm in trouble or somethin', I mean my heart's goin' a mile a minute and my chest feels tight, that can't be good, I swallowed and… FUCK! Walked straight into something! Wood by the feel of it, I reached up and ran my hands over the material, yeah wood "Ah…" metal, a handle, a door, a fucken door down here? Well it's gotta lead somewhere, I knelt, tugged off a glove and put my hand down, that's not where the draught is coming from, I sniffed, "Should go back, just run my hands along the wall until I find the others, or a fucken way out," that'd have been the sensible thing to do, but I ain't all that sensible, and something was telling me to go in there. Upon shaking the handle it became, not only bloody obvious that it was locked, but that the wood was still damn strong. Now, Cloud had given me that old key, 'cos I'm the only one with deep pockets, I fished it out now and fumbled for a key hole, found it, and forced the key around, damn thing was stiff as fuck, but it turned.  
Click.  
I pushed open the door and stepped in…

The darkness suddenly felt alive, it grabbed me and pulled me forwards, and I ain't ashamed to admit I was fucken scared, because ya'll would have been too! If it had felt like a grave before, it was nothing compared to this! This was terror incarnate, a terror that had been locked away so fucken long it had perfected it's self into an art and it was everywhere, and there was blood. Blood that brushed against my legs like a warm tide and there were baleful eyes that glared down at me, I quailed back from the monster in the darkness as its talons. My voice caught in my throat as its demonic bloody eyes snare my own, the darkness is red, deep and dark and bloody and oh shit! I finally scream, and the creature's eyes gleam…

---

Cid was sitting bolt up right when the girls found him, his eyes wide and unseeing, he said something, but his voice was horse and they didn't hear, "What?" Yuffie pressed, he gasped and found his voice, "Turn on the light!! FUCKEN TURN IT ON!!!"

_  
"There."  
"I see him! Oh that sly old fox!"_

"I knew he'd be okay."  
"Yes, he got away."  
"Huh? But… Where'd he go to now?"


	4. The Wolf Amongst Us

Chapter Three  
The Wolf Amongst Us

"Man is not man, but a wolf to those he does not know"

_I watched the moon rising, slow as syrup dripping upwards as a silver fuckyou to gravity, and I wrinkled my nose, not only was I never reaching it now, but we were all in bad shape after that Green Dragon attack and none too pleased to be nursing new cuts and bruises, and the only fucken reason we were out here in the mountains anyhow was because Cloud had remembered the old mansion and wanted to stick his fucken nose into places it didn't belong, all for, as it turned out, that vampire fucker who scared the crap out of me in Niebelheim and went all spastic in the fight and turned into some damn wolf… dragon… beast, demon thing! Only to go and take off afterwards, leaving us lot feeling like shit, and now here I am, clambering over the rocks in the gloom, just 'cos Aerith decided we couldn't leave him out here alone! Now look, I ain't gonna gripe about bein' the only one out here, 'cos I ain't! But that don't make it fucken better does it!_

I slithered on the shale and pitched over, throwing out my hands with a yelp to catch the rock, it shifted, but held, thank fucken God, I caught my breath, heart going a mile a minute, and pulled myself back up over the edge, laying on my back I stared up at the skeletons of the extinct volcanoes, horrible bloody cactus mountains, the softer stone having been eroded… I wonder how old these things are? Makes ya think…Think about leavin' any how, I ain't gonna find the crazy motherfucker, so I might as well get outta here!

"AH!"

Spoke too soon.

I wobbled to my feet, "Shit, pulled a muscle," rubbed the inside of my thigh until the ache died a bit, then, lighting a new cig, strode towards the winding path I'd left and headed towards the distant –too fucken distant- figure up ahead. It was either him or Tifa had given up and was sitting up there, either way, someone with long dark hair was hugging their knees and staring up at the moon.

As I drew closer I swear it got darker, oppressive, soon the rocks about me were pitch and iron slag coloured, the sky was darkened by the mountain fog that was creeping everywhere and making me so damn cold and damp at this height, I could see the moon, a hazy circle peering through the fog. But other than that I couldn't see much at all, too dark, too foggy, at least it was bloody obvious if I left the path, but what if I went past wasshisname? What if I ended up as far as the reactor, missed that and walked straight off the cliff!? What sort of idiot builds on a cliff anyway!?! My breathing rate was rising again now, I tripped to a halt and glanced around nervously; oh-shit, some fucken monster is gonna be after me! Do the wolves come this high up!?  
"I know you…"  
"Ah!" I turned, two bright glowing orbs blinked at me from a pale face, paler in the moon light, it was the vampire: he looked down, tugged on his cape and turned back to looking out over the plains. Rocket Town was down there somewhere. Lost in the dark. Heh… How fucken fitting.  
I swallowed, nervous of him but so bloody thankful to have found someone, and stepped closer, only to realise he was sitting above the path on a slab of stone that had probably fallen down here from higher up. He sighed mournfully, "I'm sorry," he said suddenly, his voice dulled by the fog, "Did you come here looking for me?"  
"Yeah, no…"

"I was sent to find ya, it's different."  
"…Oh. Well it's to be expected, no one wants a demon running wild."  
"Demon?"  
"That's what I am."  
"…Really? I thought ya were some kinda fucked up vampire," I climbed up beside him.  
"No," he said, staring down at his hand, "I'm a demon, a monster," his eyes closed, and I frowned, "I should never have left my tomb, now I plague you good people."  
"Heh, I wouldn't wish that fucken place on anyone, besides we ain't so good," he looked up, "I mean who is…" I fell silent, looking up at the moon through the fog, he didn't say anything, only followed my gaze.

Eventually we both started to get really chilled, well I did, I'm not sure about him, I kinda think it was more him taking pity on me! But whatever it was, it was him who guided me back to camp, him and his creepy-fucken-arse eyes, but… we'll I suppose he ain't so bad, and the way he fights, damn the guy's powerful, at least he seems _to be on our side… Na, he had to be.  
I don't care what he says though, I don't believe in demons, and I've seen him in daylight, so I strongly doubt he's a vampire, besides I've never seen vampires turn into wolves… Werewolf maybe? But werewolves are humans ain't they? Anyway… this guy's definitely human, or he wouldn't have been sitting up here all depressed, right? I can't say he doesn't scare me though, he's _like_ a wolf, those dangerous eyes, wild hair, his whole appearance is tense and wild in fact, but he's so damn quiet, he watches and waits and I ain't sure I wanna know what he's waitin' for… Na, I don't have anything against him per se, but I ain't sure we're gonna be friends exactly…  
Not sure I want to be friends, could get awkward..._


	5. Phoenix Down

Chapter Four  
Pheonix Down

_  
I grit my teeth and growled, that damn fucken…Thing! was shuffling closer.  
The softly glowing lantern in its gnarled paw lifted, "Shit!" and the emitted light began to pulsate, I shifted my hold on the sharkskin grip of my spear as red lit clouds of blackened darkness billowed out of the lantern and towards me, trying to dodge, in vain as it turned out, I fell heavily upon my knee, "Agh!" and looked up in time to see the fucken spell baring down to obscure my vision, only the shine from the enemy's peculiar floating star glinted through the attack._

The fiery cold bite of Everyone's Grudge tore a scream from its victim, me. I convulsed, back arching, and cried out at the roof of the cave complex, I couldn't see it, but it was there. Falling forwards onto my hands, my sore knee bruised a shit load worse and a jolt of pain ran up my thigh. Wrists almost giving way and my shoulders beginning to shake with the sudden strain as my energy ebbed away.

The spell faded.

I could again see those nightmarish natural halls of stone, from a long ago past fight, that surrounded me, timing was perfect as always with the pang of claustrophobia that hit me and I closed my eyes against the all-too-bright glow that bathed the tunnels in an unhealthy teal colour. Now the glow was brighter than before, and as I sank to the ground, motes of light swam in front of my eyes. With a quiet, drained, curse, resigning myself to the white-green eternity that greeted the dead, I damned the cold crawling up me, inch by inch. I couldn't feel my toes.

The Master Tonberry was still shuffling forwards though, and I shook my head, "No..." in negation as it raised it's lantern again, "Fuck… no…" I spat, trying to get up, but in that instant it was as if the world exploded, four loud shots rang out and I clamped my hands over my ears, feeling as if my throbbing head was going to tear it's self in two. Maybe that was what the sound was, the rivets keeping my head together finally shooting out from too much pressure… I swayed in my half crouch, "Wha…" but the red and black was clouding my vision again, even as the sound cleared from my mind, whatever had caused the sound was gone now, and I would never find out what it was, not after this attack. I could even still see that damn golden star glinting.

Feeling broken, I whimpered, closing my eyes and waiting for the attack that didn't happen.

"Hah…?" snapping my eyes open as a cold, oh so damn cold, feeling different to the cold of Everyone's Grudge, and aching of metal, had come to rest on my cheek, gently insisting that I look up, and look up I did, into two baleful red points of light, twins, Mars duplicated in the night sky and around the two distant worlds: clouds; illuminated from below by a red fire, Cid gulped against the out-of-sight destruction. Something sharp pricked into his skin and Cid winced, the red lights boring into my own, blinked out for a moment, then reappeared, glazed with pain, but they were accompanied by a pressure on my lips and a warming, almost spicy liquid slithered down his gullet, I blinked, shivered, feeling energy welling up, "I wouldn't let you go, now would I, Highwind?" said a voice that sounded like brandy tasted.

I swallowed past the odd feeling of feather down floating through me and the overdose of green light began to recede. The motes in front of my eyes were gone, and so was the obscuring red and black before my eyes. The gold was gone too, and all that was left was darkness…

---

"Gah!"  
"Eeeah!"  
"What!?"  
"You screamed!"  
"Go back to sleep, Yuffie."  
"Humph! You were the one doing the waking, I just happened to be here… One of those dreams again?"  
"….Yeah."

Above his head Cid heard the young woman shift and her pale face appeared over the edge of the top-bunk. Cid turned his head marginally to face her, he knew he must look… stressed at least, but he didn't think she really needed to say anything, "You look awful!" but she did, "Get Merlin to give you something, 'kay? You're not sleeping properly and it's keeping me awake!" her face vanished and Cid scowled as she shuffled around, finally she settled down and Cid rolled over, staring emptily into the darkness filling their small room in Hollow Bastion, "Yeah," he said finally, "I will. Sorry for wakin' yas up, kid."  
"'s okay," she yawned.

Soon Yuffie fell asleep, Cid lay awake, thinking into the dawn.  
He thought about the stranger who'd brought him that Phoenix Down in his dream, "Who are ya?" but he got no answer and drifted back to sleep as the first bird started to sing…


	6. Angler

Chapter Five  
Angler

"Hay! Hay Cid! Shhhiiidddooo! Lookit!"  
"I can see ya!"  
"Watch this!"  
Out in the clear water Yuffie's bobbing head vanished, but for a moment, until with a surge of water she jumped from the sea and landed again with a 'ker-splash!plop' she rose up laughing, "Bet you can't do that! Bet ya too **old**! Hah!"  
"Old!? I'll show ya old!" Cid grunted and threw himself from the rock he was perched upon, vanishing under the water while Yuffie crossed her arms and waited. She only waited a few seconds until some distance away Cid jumped out of the water, his pectoral fins shot open and he glided 5 or 6 meters before diving smoothly back into the water, Yuffie scowled and dived down to meet him, he was doing loop-da-loops when she caught up with him.

---

Two days past, after a long period of absence, Sora, Donald and Goofy had shown up in Hollow Bastion and told about their adventures, Merlin had been very interested in Atlantica and the way he went straight to his books and started making what looked disturbingly like a shopping list had been worrying for all present, Sora and his friends left before Merlin had finished however, and it was Cid and Yuffie he pounced upon, "Take this," he'd said, "and go to um… That wet place—"  
"Atlantica?"  
"Shut up Cid!"  
"Yes, yes! That's the place, go there and bring back some of all of these."  
"Paper'll get wet."  
"I've put a spell over it, now shoo shoo!"  
"…Fine, come on brat."  
"Only one of us really needs to – Ah! Put me DOWN!"

If it hadn't been for Donald's interruptions during Sora's story they would have been unaware of the affect this world had on people, and may have been dismayed at discovering their fish-tails, as it was Yuffie took to it almost instantaneously, Cid floated upside down for a bit until he saw sunlight on the water and with surprising ability shot towards it, "Faker!" Yuffie yelled after him, and swam up in his wake.

---

"It's only because you've got wings that you can glide like that!" Yuffie said they swam back towards the beach,  
"I ain't got wings!"  
"What are these then?" she tugged on the long fins Cid was keeping close to his body,  
"Fins," he said,  
"Big fins!"  
"Well I'm _obviously_ a flying fish."  
"Yeah, with wings!" Yuffie darted past him and scuffed a load of sand into the water at him, swearing he went after her and followed the lithe, spotted tailed, girl up onto the sand banks.  
Even in the shallow water, the sun was warm and Cid was more than happy to just float there and soak up the warmth, the only movement he made was a slow lazy swaying of his tail to stop the wash dragging him back into the cooler waters. Yuffie drifted about looking for pretty shells and chatting with the small hermit crabs, their red legs usually all she could see of them. Merlin's seaweed could wait, it wasn't often they got to go to another world like this, and for the first time since he could remember Cid didn't feel nervous about the ocean, and Yuffie wasn't bored just because he refused to do anything with her. It was warm, peaceful, and Cid was just about to send a wave of water Yuffie's way with a sweep of his tail, when a cry came from up the bay, both lounging newly-tailed-merfolk in the water sat up sharply on their hands and stared down the sands, a figure was hopping up and down yelling and waving to others behind him.

IMG SRC="" ALIGN="left" WIDTH="400px" ALT="Ariel's nervousness""Get out of there" Yuffie turned towards the voice, two large eyes and a lot of red hair peered around one of the rocks scattering the bay, "hurry!" the newcomer vanished.  
"Cid, we've got to go!" she yanked on his tail and dived, Cid turned and followed her.

The young mermaid who'd called them down didn't go far, she waited for them in the clear waters, her green fins coiling, she was glancing around nervously, "What are you doing?" she asked, "I know I go up to the surface too, but I don't let my self get seen!"  
"It's not allowed?" Yuffie asked as they swam up to her,  
"Of course not!"  
"Sorry, din' know, thanks for getting us. I'm Cid, this is Yuffie."  
"I'm Arial. You didn't know? You're not from around here are you?"  
"Nope, but hay, we've heard of you, ya know Sora, Donald and Goofy right?"  
"Yes! Are you friends of theirs?"  
Yuffie grinned, "Yeah, I suppose we are. Hay Arial maybe you can help us--"  
"We've been sent 'ere to find a load of shit, here," Cid handed her the 'shopping list'  
"Shit?"  
"Er… Don't um, repeat that, heh," he scratched the back of his head, "Okay, just forget it?"  
"Oh? Okay… Sure," she smiled, "Well," she pointed to the first few things on the list, Merlin had put pictures of the weeds too, knowing it would be useless to expect his searchers to know their names and appearances, "Those are easy to find, but these ones, those are kinda hard."  
"Rare are they?"  
"No, they're not rare, but they grow in dangerous places, I'll show you where they are though. The first few can all be found around my home."

Her home turned out to be nothing more than a palace, built of sunken stone works and raised coral. It glowed against the blue-green background; around it swam schools of silver laced fish. Arial had been right about the seaweeds, they turned out to be edible, and were grown in the palace gardens; great swathes of green and brown seaweeds, some a type of oarweed, the growth of which was like a small woodland, though some of the fronds would be a challenge of height for the tallest trees either Cid or Yuffie had ever seen, some of the kelp forests Ariel described would be more than a match for the great forests on land.

It was with woven bags stuffed with seaweed slung over their shoulders that Cid and Yuffie followed Arial to one of these forests, despite the arguments coming from the crab that had joined their number for a while. Sunk down below the level of the palace and some few miles out from the main settlement of the merfolk, it was a haunting and creepy place, swaying in the current the dark growths stretched up endlessly towards the surface, their anchors were shrouded in darkness. Large toothy fish swam nearby, but Arial assured them that they'd be no danger to them, and higher up seals could be heard laughing as they tormented the smaller fish. A strong current had brought them here, and could still be felt tugging at their backs. "This way," Arial started towards the forest.

It only seemed to get darker for a while, and colder, and Cid began to get paranoid that there was something following them, he didn't say anything, but he saw Arial glancing around nervously too, "How comes ya know ya way around here?"  
"I come here looking for stuff… Thingamabobs and Wassnames, stuff like that."  
Cid and Yuffie looked at each other with raised eyebrows, "Right," Cid said, "Okay."  
Ahead of them light glimmered through the kelp, and they swam out into a large area of sparser growth, there was an old wreck here, wooden and rotting, if it had sunk deeper it might have been preserved, here it had settled on a 'hill' of sand and grit. On it grew an odd twisted weed with tiny bladders and a purple tinge to its fronds. Ether Wrack. Yuffie mentally ticked it off the list.

Things started getting strange when they were gathering up some of the seaweed, Cid had his back to _it_, Arial was exploring one of the cabins and didn't see _it_, but Yuffie spotted something silvery in the distance though the kelp, _it_ was large, longer than a man was tall, and when seen through a gap in the fronds, had dark fins and back, and marks of red, "Cid, look!" she pointed and he turned, "There's nothin' there, kid, just weeds."  
"No keep looking! There!"  
"Eh… What the?" two burning red orbs blinked at them, then flickered out, the dark creature vanished into the depths.

"Arial, is there anything… Strange in here?"  
"What do you mean?"  
"We saw something, like, silver and black with red eyes. I didn't see it properly."  
"Ain't sure if it was a fish or mermaid or what!?"  
"…I've not seen it…"  
"Ya lying gal."  
"Well… There is _something_ here, but I don't know what it is, I've not seen it, but it's been seen all over the place, in the palace to."  
"If ya ain't seen it, how do ya know it's the same thing?"  
"Everyone who has, has seen the same thing, 'its eyes, they're red as blood, and it's so _fast_,' they're saying it's a monster from the crevasse.  
"So, are you afraid of it?" Yuffie swam up beside the redhead,  
"We all are, daddy thinks it's dangerous and doesn't want me to leave the palace until it's caught or it's left."  
"We'll find it."  
"What?" the two girls turned to look at Cid,  
"We'll find it, see what it wants and chase it off. You people got spears? We'll kill it if we have to."  
Yuffie back flipped, "It's just like old times!"  
"Take us to the rest of the seaweeds, and we'll get this monster for you."

---

They made a trade, the guards wanted to keep their weapons, Cid and Yuffie wanted to keep the seaweeds, so the guards would keep the weeds until Cid and Yuffie came back with the weapons.

Ariel and a merman, who seemed to have the ill luck of often running across this strange creature which he described as a horrendous monster that must have been summoned by the seawitch, lead them to the crevasse where it was often seen, Ariel apologised but said her father had found out she was wandering and the merman was meant to escort her back, the two natives wished the hunters luck and left them gazing at the gash of darkness in the sea bed, "Well," Cid said, "It's now or never I guess."  
They swam down, the darkness reached up to take them in, and both wondered what sort of Heartless swam in these waters, maybe this creature they were hunting was a Heartless or some mermaid or merman who'd died violently and had come back as little more than a ghost to haunt their fellows. Five minutes into the darkness they were still wondering, now swimming almost vertically downwards, until they found a horizontal ledge that was partially sunk into the wall of the crevasse they glided along it until it fell back into the rock as a cave, or tunnel, they couldn't see the end so it was hard to tell, however something glowed faintly in it's depths. Ignoring commonsense, all innate survival instincts, Yuffie tugging on his tail and the lack of width to the cave that would more than hinder moving his borrowed spear, Cid swam into the cave, Yuffie cursed quietly and followed him, and she was glad her tail needed less room to move than Cid's, which kept flicking into the wall. All light along with the glow vanished, but they got to the end of the cave, Yuffie almost panicked when Cid told her this, fearing they wouldn't be able to turn around and that it would be impossible to go backwards, then all of a sudden he was gone, she yelped and moved to where he'd been and found that the rock dropped away under her outstretched hands, below her there was a noise. Swallowing nervously she followed what she hoped was Cid downwards into the pitch black of this tunnel.

It opened out suddenly and Yuffie squeaked as she tumbled into nothingness, blinking open her eyes and not realising they'd been closed, she was greeted by Cid's form swimming around and around in what appeared to be a large oval cave lit by some natural phosphorescence, the tunnels of long dead worms and the cases of long defunct crabs and shrimp were scattered around the funnel of a deep sea volcano, it was assumable that it had been shut off by tectonic shift some long time ago, but it had possibly been it's hot water currents that had slowly carved out this cave and the tunnel upwards. Cid was swearing.  
"What happened?"  
"Fucker vanished! I SAW it! Bastard was looking straight at me, pale as a ghost it was, came down here, but fuck knows where it went!" he twisted sharply and slammed his tail against the old volcano, shells and the dust of the dead billowed into the water, when it settled Cid was still glowering, "Maybe," Yuffie started, "Maybe there's another way out?"  
"Don't yah think I fucken thought of that!?" he span on her and Yuffie back flipped away,  
"I'm just saying is all! Why are you getting so bent out of shape about this?"  
"I'm got to find him! I've got to!"  
"So it's a 'he' now?" Cid punched the wall behind him, looking up at the funnel as he did so, "I daren't sleep anymore! And it's because of him!"  
"How do you know?"  
"I KNOW! Wait!"  
"What?"  
"The volcano!"  
"What!?"  
"He went down there!"  
"I don't think this is a good idea… Cid!"  
He hesitated at the funnel edge, "What?"  
"Please, just forget it, let's go back. Please?"  
"But…" a line of bubbles rose from the volcano, "…We promised Ariel."  
"We'll just tell her we lost it; it'd be the truth after all," Yuffie held her breath, Cid looked on the verge of agreeing, she couldn't explain it, but she had a terrible feeling about what lurked in that dark volcano mouth, Cid turned to face her, about to answer, when a dot of light appeared in the water, spinning and expanding until it became a circle of light about a foot across, Merlin's face beamed out at them, "Did you get the wracks?"  
"Yeah," Cid nodded, "We got 'em."  
"Are you alright, you seem rather down?"  
"Na, I'm okay…"  
"Well good, you can both come home now if you want."  
"Okay!" Yuffie piped, "We'll be right there," Merlin nodded, and the light vanished with a 'plip' sound.

---

When they left something slithered out of the volcano.  
It was slim and strong, elegant and lithe.  
It's eyes were red and full of sadness; "I fear this is no coincidence," it whispered to it's self, "Did I misscalculate, do you… **want** to find me again…?" hiding it's face in it's hands the dark creature mentally struggled with this new conundrum…

---

"So how did it go?"  
"Fine," Cid threw his satchel down onto the table with a squelch,  
"Kinda damp though," Yuffie said, her satchel joining Cid's, "But fine."  
"I'm going to bed, don't wake me up…"  
"I'm tired too…"  
"Well I ain't stoppin' ya going to bed, s'long as ya intend to sleep."  
"Thanks."

"Hay Yuffie…" Cid looked up from the sketch pad resting on his pillow,  
"M'yeh?"  
"Do ya think, if you forgot something but had, say a photo or a sketch of the thing or person, that there might be something that stopped ya seeing that photo or sketch until you'd remembered that person or thing."  
"If I understood you right… Then… I dunno, I guess you could ask Merlin?"  
"Yeah… Might do that tomorrow…" he yawned past his hand, looking down at the new image, it was a roughly and quickly drawn image of himself, sleeping apparently, but that wasn't what caught his attention, it was the writing; smooth, looping handwriting leaving a short sad note:

_I am sorry,  
I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me now,  
as you have in the past, though I should not be so presumptuous as to assume you will._

I fear now, however, that I must leave;  
you have been so good to me, I may never be able to repay you, though given the chance I shall strive to,  
I have little doubt we shall again see each other,  
may it be soon and may we then have more time together.  
Yours,  
Valentine.~~~~~

_Valentine,_ Cid closed the sketchbook and slipped it under his pillow, _Who are you…?_


	7. Sierra Tequila

Chapter Six  
Sierra Tequila

_A drink precedes a story._

The sun beat down hotly on the panting silver backed jackal, Yuffie sitting in the dust of the Pridelands, her pink tongue lolling out in the heat, above her head a broad winged bird flew in a wide circle, its naked head turned this way and that irritably. Cid's blue eyes glittered in the sun when he looked down at the jackal, "I can't see it!" he cawed,  
Yuffie barked back up, "Lets go then! If we can't find it, he'll have to do without!  
"I can't believe the old fool managed to loose it!"  
"Ya would have though he'd have put a fucken finding spell on it or something, wouldn't ya?"  
"What was he doing anyway?" with a barely perceptible tilt of his wings Cid swung into a downward spiral, and didn't answer until he hopped to a halt, leaving a trail of dust in his ungainly wake.  
"Stupid bugger was trying to find an easier safer way to send things from one fucken world to another fucken world!  
"C'mon, kid lets get the hell outta here before we die of dehydration!"  
Jumping to her paws and skittering over, Yuffie asked, "You don't think we really _would_…**Do** you!?"  
"Hell would I know!?"

At least the Gummyship wasn't far, it had landed and dropped it's passengers in a less than habitable area of this world, where some mangy hyenas had given them a hard time, before remembering why they didn't tackle vultures on their own, "Big bird got big claws!" one of them had howled as they took off with Yuffie close on their heels, she'd not followed long though, Cid had dropped on her and warned her against it, hyena's could be chased off, but they were still hunters, and these guys were local to boot, they knew the area and they were used to being animals. Now however, the two had to make their way back through this area, and they were tired and worn thin, Cid half hopped, half stalked, along behind Yuffie, who was beginning to look a bit droopy around the ears and tail her self. It was without warning that Yuffie turned on him, teeth clicking shut inches from his beak, "Hay!" she snapped, "Why'd you do that!?"  
"Do what!?"  
"You just hit my foot!"  
"I fucken didn't!"  
"Did so! Gawd, if you wanted me to go faster you could have just said so!"  
"I didn't do it! How could I have!?"  
"Well you clawed it, or pecked it or something! It hurt! You pecked my foot, look it's bleeding!"  
"Bullshit! I didn't go near your dirty feet! Just get ya arse in gear and get to the ship!"  
"Not until you apologise!"  
"I've got nothing to fucken apologise for!!"  
"Well then explain why it certainly _felt like_ you pecked me!"  
"I don't know do I!? Maybe a rock bounced up! Or those damn hyenas are back and throwing stuff at us!?"  
"Yeah right!"  
"Yeah, that is right!" he sneered,  
"GOD! I can't stand you sometimes!"  
"Then walk! Ya won't have to stand then!"  
Yuffie huffed and backed up a step, "I'll do more than walk!" she barked, turning sharply and running off, Cid cawed and screeched after her until she vanished in the maze of rocky canyons, "Good fucken riddance!" _If she ain't back by tonight, I'm leaving… Well, going into orbit, I'll come back tomorrow._

Yuffie didn't go far, quarter of a mile into the Elephant Graveyard and away from Cid she started to hear noises, laughter and barking calls, she was horribly aware of being a small jackal all alone in an area haunted by hyena packs, some had every reason to want to come after her, and she, unlike Cid, couldn't fly away from them… Cid… she whined and looked back, _He's all alone and so tired he can barely fly,_ she thought carefully, _I really __**should**__ go back and see if he's okay…_ there was a hoot of laughter and a gangly drooling beast leapt up upon the bones of long dead pachyderm, she screamed and took to her heels back the way she'd come.

"Cid!"  
"Come back then?" he was perched in a gnarly thorny tree that may or may not be dead, he looked every inch the creepy hunched vulture, Yuffie scowled at him,  
"Well," she said, "I didn't very well want to, but there are hyenas around, I didn't want to be blamed for you getting your mangy feather-butt eaten now, did I?"  
"Heh, guess we can't have that," Cid nodded towards the multifaceted slope leading up to the ship, it glittered faintly in the sun, waiting for those it was expecting to come aboard and for those it wasn't expecting to be thrown off by a strong pulse of magic, "We going then?" Yuffie poked her tongue out at him and trotted up the slope, Cid half fell, half flew, from the tree and glided to the slope, landing at the top he glanced back, something had taken his place in the tree, it was small with a sharp beak and curved talons, its shoulders were black and from it's angular, sleek, face two burning red eyes gazed madly at him, as the eyes of raptors are like to do, Cid blinked at the hawk and the suppressed mischievousness behind that gaze. It didn't move and inch. Like a creature possessed Cid barrelled down the slope, wings beating feverishly, he stretched out his neck as the hawk took easily to the skies and rose upwards, the sound that came from the vulture's beak wasn't even close to human when he felt jaws close around his legs and pull him down, "Idiot! What's got into you, we've got to go!" he looked disbelievingly up at Yuffie,  
"Did ya…?"  
"Hmn?"  
"Did ya see that bird?"  
"No, does it matter?"  
"…Probably not," he muttered, craning his neck to look around, "Probably not…"

---

"Where'd Cid go?"  
"He said he wished to walk, and would be back soon."  
"Oh, okay."

The sun was low in the south-west, the sky bruising in the east as night crept up over the town; the gold and purple in the sky only served to compliment the red roofs of the town houses, the pipes weaving around the city gleamed brightly and the purple slate walls became warm and hazy in the sun, the temperature however was not so warm, there was a chill wind blowing tonight that brought a flush to the cheeks of those out and about. However the beautiful evening, the chill wind, and the cheerful people went unnoticed, Cid's gaze was elsewhere not on this world. Detached, his expression vacant, he sat still as stone on a wide, but high wall near the edge of town, a long dead cigarette sat between his fingers. He was dimly aware of three young women watching him and whispering amongst themselves, eventually two of them drifted away, the third, and by far the smallest of the women, climbed the stairs to the walk way and stepped gingerly onto the wall.

"Um, hi," Cid blinked and looked up slowly, the brunette smiled nervously at him -or maybe the nervousness was directed at the bottle of tequila by his hand- and tugged on her pale blue coat, it was almost white, she was wearing large round glasses. Cid smiled, vaguely aware that this young woman, despite looking like some mad scientist, was trying to be friendly, "Hay," he said,  
"Sorry, I shouldn't have interrupted you, you were contemplating weren't you?" Cid blinked, taken aback at the sudden apology,  
"Contemplating? Heh, well I might have been if I knew what that meant. Don't worry, I was away with the faeries, ya not disturbing me or nothin'," he grinned and she smiled with relief, "Oh good!" she was very familiar, thought Cid, but he couldn't place where from, other than having seen her around town, maybe she knew where he knew her from, "You know, I've this odd feeling we've met before…" he said,  
"Really? Well I'm sure we've seen each other before, in fact I know we have! I was the klutz who poured wine down you," she made a little noise of dismay but Cid just laughed, "Hay yeah! It was your round at that party in The Frog and Greyhound! I was standing behind ya!"  
"I'm so sorry about that, I hope it didn't stain!"  
"Na, it was fine, ain't your fault any how, I shouldn't have been standin' that close."  
"Hay, listen, I came up here to ask if you were okay, I saw you… oh, I don't know, about half an hour ago, walking through the town, you looked totally spun out, and didn't seem much better sitting up here. Is there something bothering you? But it's not my business, sorry."  
"Na na, I don't mind, hell, maybe it'll help if I talk about it, heh, I should be apologising, seems I've stolen ya away from ya friends for the evening."  
"Oh that's okay, they'll be fine without me. So what's happened to make you so thoughtful?"  
"Well I've not been here long, came here, I dunno, a month ago, maybe longer, came with some friends, but well things went a bit wrong, we all lost some of our memories, and I ain't convinced all of mine came back; there's like, a empty spot in my head – hell you might be a part of it and I wouldn't even know, but I started having these nightmares, they were so dark, and full of red and there was this _creature_ in the darkness, but…" he groaned and rubbed his temples, "…but they stopped, something changed, the creature wasn't scary anymore, it was protecting me! Then it wasn't a monster, it was… Something else… And it was sad, so sad…"  
"Maybe it doesn't want to be a monster?"  
"Yeah, I mean I can't imagine many monsters _want_ to be monsters. Thing is, I could deal with that, nightmares, dreams, flashbacks, whatever they were, I could deal with all that shit, but today, I was out with a friend, in The Pridelands –"  
"Pridelands?"  
"Yeah," he pointed up at the stars beginning to glitter in the darkening sky, "A lot of those stars are other worlds, I don't expect ya to believe this, but The Pridelands are one of those."  
"I'm finding that hard to believe, but I've seen some strange things, so…"  
"Heh, tell me about it, living shadows and wriggly white guys, then other worlds? Fucked up ain't it?"  
"Well that's not how I'd put it. These other worlds though, do you mean they circle those stars?"  
"Na, they just… float around out there."  
"But that doesn't make sense! Planetology—"  
"I know, I know! They should all go around a common centre, and for all of them to sustain life they'd have to form a ring around that centre, right?"  
"Yes, basically!"  
"But they don't, some of them don't even seem to have stars at all, I mean ya can see the stars at night, as far as I know, I don't travel around them much—"  
"But… they don't have a sun?"  
"Exactly."  
"…What about us?"  
"Hmn?"  
"Here, right here, Hollow Bastion, what about here?"  
"…Same."  
"But that goes against everything I know!" she stood up sharply from where she was half crouching, "I'm confused!"  
"I know," he raised his hands to calm her down, "it didn't make any sense to me either, my friends and I came here thanks to Merlin, the wizard, we're stayin' with him, he used magic, but where we come from there isn't magic, there is Materia, and Mako, that seems like magic, but it's not, and our Planet, along with other planets circles one sun in ya basic solar system."  
The young woman frowned lightly, "We'll it would seem I need to do some research on this subject, if what you're saying is true, I know where Merlin lives so I may get back to you on this."  
"If ya can figure this out, go ahead, I'd like to hear it!" the woman nodded curtly and excused herself when her friends returned, "I'll see you around then," she smiled at him and Cid beamed back at her, "Yeah," he said, "Good luck on that research."  
He realised when she'd left, that not only had neither of them introduced themselves, they'd also wandered off from the original point, and he'd not explained that the reason he was up here, now freezing cold, and thinking, was because of the hawk in the Pridelands, something about it was haunting him, and it was just as he decided to move and get the feeling back in his arse, that it became as obvious as day to him, "I need to go back there. I need to find it."


	8. When in Rome

Chapter Seven  
When In Rome

_  
"Words and hearts should be handled with care for words when spoken and hearts when broken are the hardest things to repair."_

It was late afternoon, and already growing dark, when Shera, bundled up in her thickest coat, hurried out of her house, notebooks in hand, to track down the man from before, her books had been confusing, but not nearly as confusing as her housemate, still, she didn't remember them saying things like this before!  
Could it be true?  
Could he have been telling the truth?  
He probably was, just because he'd lost his memories, didn't mean he was a liar! Even so...

"Shera?" she stopped, a slender, well manicured hand lay upon her shoulder,  
"Yes?"  
"You can't go."  
"What, why?" she looked up at the other woman, who was so very like her in so many ways, and so different in others, "He doesn't remember me, I know, but what harm can I do talking about the planets and stars?"  
"More than I think you can imagine."  
"Try me!"  
"You're a physicist, not a psychologist, if his memories are disturbed prematurely; his mind could be damaged permanently, I know you want to see him, but best wait."  
"… I see."  
"Just forget about him for the moment, he's forgotten you."  
"There's no need to say it like that!"  
"Even so—"  
"When in Rome… Yeah yeah. Fine, but he'd better be okay, he's totally useless on his own you know, he'd better not starve or something."  
"I'm sure his friends are making sure that that doesn't happen. Now, lets go back home and have some dinner, shall we?"  
"What's for dinner?"  
"I suppose that's up to you."  
"…Why do I end up cooking for everyone?"  
"If you don't like it, don't be such a good cook!"  
"He'll be okay won't he? He's the only one I'm really happy looking after…"  
"He'll be fine, I'm sure, he's a strong man, he has a good heart."

_Yes,_ thought Shera sadly, _a strong man, a good heart, a good man… But I'm not sure how strong his heart is, how it can deal with being broken again._ she shivered remembering something he'd said years ago, _"Even if everything else is working fine, if something breaks too often, it gets weakened, ya wouldn't fly with stress-cracks in a prop would ya, even if the rest of the plane were fine?"_


	9. Storms in Africa

Chapter Eight  
Storms in Africa

Cid had made his decision to leave the next day, but tonight wasn't working out quite how he'd like. After having decided to return to The Pridelands, Cid had returned home to Merlin's, he'd not mentioned his plan to anyone, he'd eaten dinner rather quickly, complained of feeling tired and had vanished of to bed. Despite his claims however, Cid was far from tired, and while he struggled to sleep he got nowhere; thoughts on the day past ran riot in his head, and the more he thought the more he came to realise how many times he'd seen the hawk that day, as if it had been following them, and the more he realised that the more he came to know, unequivocally, that he had to go back to that world; others may have disagreed, but he wasn't asking others. And when Cid finally got to sleep, shortly after Yuffie came up to bed her self, he dreamt:

_I knew I was dreaming, and I have to say that that's unusual for me, and now that I've realised I'm dreaming it's becoming painfully obvious that something is wrong. It might have been that I wasn't in my own bed that clued me off, it might have been how cold the room was, it might have been how I was alone; it might have been that I was crying my fucken eyes out. I didn't sit up, but I knew I was curled up on top of the bedcovers, on an old bed, it's got to be an old bed, it's four-poster but doesn't have drapes, and it's not got a duvet, only a sheet and a quilt, it's been a long time since I've seen a quilt, but I ain't really paying much attention to that; of all things to focus on in this place, and this place is huge, though I can't see out of this room, which probably had white paint on the walls as some point, though it didn't look white anymore, along with the dark wood panels around the sides too, there's a table by the window, which is dirty but has been partially cleaned to allow light in, maybe to let a person look out, I can see a note on the table when I look that way, or rather I see it's reflection, there's a broken mirror on the wall, the reflection is broken too, but I'm not looking that way, I'm looking at the skirting board when I look past my tears, but I don't think that means fuck all, I think what's important is what's in my hand, 'cos I'm clutching the pillow next to the one I'm laying on, it means something, but I don't know what.  
Downstairs I hear a door open and a voice call out, I wince and curl up tighter, "If I'm quiet, maybe they won't find me..."  
There was a throbbing noise in the background, constant and familiar..._

Cid groaned and covered his ears as the small rubbish truck that squeezed down the alleys in the mornings trundled past, _Of all the things to wake up to,_ he wrinkled his nose, remembering what the throbbing noise of his dream had been and wishing that he could hear it here, knowing that he'd hear it again when he got home thanks to the hard work of his crew... His crew... A dull pain welled up within him and he clenched his teeth, that memory, that dream, it was too much right now, he swung himself out of bed and padded over to the window and sat on the little stool by the little table that was tucked away in the corner. The bottle of tequila is there, it's mostly empty now; he glares at it, probably it's fault he had that dream tonight, glancing over at Yuffie, all he could see was her shoulder, he shook his head, "Don't drink, kid," he breathed, "It ain't a good idea."  
He drank more of it anyway; Cid had never claimed to follow his own advice.

Memories of dreams were running around his head worse than ever: the dark underground corridors and the creature within them; the fight with the Tonberry and the gentle hand that had given him that Phoenix Down, even if that same hand had left a line of pricked cuts along his cheek, not that they'd been there when he'd awoken. He remembered the multitude of dreams that had plagued his sleep: time and again horrible cold and uncomfortable dampness, with a horrible feeling of something watching him; hours of strange endless darkness and sharp golden metal the only thing to hold himself up on; red velvet prisons that were scary until he'd wondered why; prowling, spear in hand, rusty canyons, and jumping nervously with the echoes of heart stopping gunshots around his ears, only to find the target was not him, but a gryphon thudding to ground behind him, and most recently a long beach, shrouded in darkness a sickle moon is shining over the sea, and the waves sparkle white and steel blue, the sands are silver and shifting, out in the surf is a solitary winged form, dull gray in this light, the Tiny Bronco, her props still and her form corroding fast in the salt water, her zinc coating doing too little to help in the sea; further up the beach, under the waving branches of the Cyprus trees, is a tall, slender figure, they're turned away, hugging themselves. Something dark hangs over their head, it's semi-transparent, leathery, wings curving around the figure possessively… That one never failed to disturb Cid, no matter how he wanted to get to the figure, his feet would move so slowly, and when he did get close the creatures wing would form an impenetrable wall between him and his aim, he'd be left trying to find a way in until he woke up, but no matter which way he went, what he tried, the wing was always in front of him, though it didn't seem to move; dreams play strange tricks on the mind.

Settling back and trying to figure out his dreams, Cid, moving to light a cigarette, once again put it down to his missing memories –damn Merlin's magic, they never should have come here, it's not like they've done much to help, Cloud has spent all his time looking for Sephiroth, it would seem not only Aerith had been allowed back, and Tifa spent all her time looking for Cloud, and not understanding why he ran away when she got near, "I don't get why he's so obsessed with finding Sephiroth, he can't even do much trouble here without his connection to the Planet!" Cid, Yuffie and Aerith had given her long 'you've got to be kidding' looks, "You honestly don't know?" Cid had asked, "Know what?" she'd said– and that his dreams were trying to bring back those memories, what was being shown to him was an attempt at remembering things, he assumed for instance, that the beach dream was a more literal portrayal of perhaps trying to reach someone who had a built a mental 'wall' around them, because of some past horror, their greatest 'demon'—Cid's line of thoughts were cut off when he fumbled his cigarette and it fell behind the electric heater, he didn't realise how close he'd been to the truth as he knelt down and reached under the, thankfully cold, metal to grope for the dropped cig.

He found it, but not before catching something else with his fingers, tossing the dusty cobwebby cigarette into his ashtray (a saucer from a cup of tea he'd had the first day here) he fumbled with the mysterious object behind the heater, pushing it sideways until it fell out the side, Cid winced at the noise, but Yuffie only sighed and shifted slightly, relaxing again he picked up his find.

It was a sketch book, bigger than A5, smaller that A4, maybe B5, it wasn't old, but it was scruffy. Cid flipped it open and flicked through the pages, the first three or four pages had what he'd pretty much expected on them, quick sketches of his beloved Highwind airship, the Bronco, and strangely his car, he smirked at the thought of the dark green, ShinRa, sports car, and the look on the faces of Avalanche that first Christmas after the Meteor crisis, when he'd shown up, as per request along with the other scattered members of the miss match group, in Midgar, it's paint gleaming in the watery sun… He smiled, he remembered his own indignation at the storm clouds on the horizon and his insistence that the car be got under cover, Yuffie wanted to go out for a ride in it, so did Cloud, but Tifa didn't trust his driving, even though he was far better than Barrett, hah! The man didn't know the meaning of road safety! Cid did, he just ignored it most of the time. The next page had birds on it, and a picture of Nanaki, the cat-dog-thing looked more like a hearthrug however, though considering his flaming tail this wasn't a bad comparison, and the birds feathery potatoes with beaks, Cid chuckled to himself, machines he could draw, but his talents petered out with animals, _Practice,_ he'd been told many times, but he didn't see the reason why since it was so rare he drew like this. He could draw people though, well portraits, but they never looked like the person they were meant to look like, that was okay though, as a rule people don't like drawings of them to look like them, it's not always flattering… "Speak of the devil…" Cid's brows quirked skywards as he turned the page. At first it looked like a soft charcoal sketch on the paper, but then he realised it was paint, watercolours, or watercolour pencils, not his chosen medium but one he had used before, the softly smiling man was resting his cheek against his hand, which had been drawn rather hurriedly, his long black hair tumbled loosely around a startlingly pale face, his nose had gone a bit wrong and there was some rough attempt at fixing that. The only colour on the image was in the eyes; a shock of red that glowed out of the paper, it sent a cold shiver up Cid's spine, which ended in a flush of heat, if he'd been drunker, or maybe not distracted, he might have wondered if this was something like the hot flushes women seem to complain about a lot, as it was it wasn't a question he asked; "Well," he whispered to himself, "There's no doubt about it now, I knew you…" but the face was without name, and left Cid no less confused than before.

He decided to leave that night.  
It may have just been a coincidence, it may have just been artistic licence, but he saw in that man's red eyes the same mischievousness he'd seen in the eyes of the hawk, there was that same sharpness to the face, the way he held himself with the quiet self-assuredness of a being walking the line between life and death, as both a fast and capable predator and yet a creature so dependant on another, whether it is the prey it hunts or the humans who live around it. Cid didn't bother to pack, what would be the point, when you're a vulture you have very little need for spare clothes, he just dressed in an old pair of pants and a oil-stained blue shirt before slinking away downstairs.

His noises in the bedroom had been enough to disturb Yuffie but not wake her, the closing door and creaking stairs however were. She rolled over and sat up, rubbing her eyes groggily, "Cid…?" _Hmn, guess he couldn't sleep,_ she lay back down again, not worrying, but sat up sharply when the front door closed with a bang, she leapt out of bed and ran downstairs, throwing open the door, she saw Cid just vanishing out of sight at a run, "Damn him!" she cursed, "What _does_ he think he'd doing?"

---

The gummyship was fast, but it was dawn when Cid reached The Pridelands. He manually manoeuvred the ship over the plains and towards the oasis in the far reaches of the pride's territory, and settled her down behind the tree line and over the cliffs, climbing out of a maintenance hatch Cid shivered as the odd feeling of transformation washed over him. He peered into the sky, there were no other vultures up there yet, and this early it might not be a good idea to try and take off, but he did so anyway, lunching himself off one of the ships wings, falling until he caught the wind and with heavy beats of his wings took off, looking this way and that for signs of rising air, any rising air at all, just something he could soar on for a while, this frantic beating was hard work with wings this big. He found one eventually, it carried him back out over the plains, and he instantly started looking for somewhere to perch, the mind was willing and ready go hunting for hawks, but the body was rapidly falling asleep in midair.

It was the heat of the day that woke Cid, panting, he cursed his lack of foresight at leaving the oasis, and took off to find a source of water: the small pool he eventually found had a few lionesses around one side, they peered suspiciously as him when he hopped down to the edge to drink, he eavesdropped as they spoke in hushed tones amongst themselves, there was something going down by the sounds of it, but whatever was happening wasn't Cid's problem, he fluttered and space hopped over to them, the females turned and scowled at him, "What is it scavenger?" said one with a darker pelt, her brilliant orange eyes filled with distaste, "Do we look like we have food for you? Go bother the hyenas!"  
"I ain't looking for food!"The lionesses sneered, "Oh really?" said the one with the dark pelt,  
"That'll be a first," said another,  
"Seriously ladies! In fact I was hopin' ya could help me?"  
"Oh?"  
"Do you know anything about a small hawk with red eyes?" they glanced at each other and muttered something quietly amongst themselves, "Well," said the dark pelted one, who seemed to be the leader of this small group, she was probably the oldest here, "Yes, possibly anyway, there is a hawk--"  
"They're not common!" piped the youngest,  
"Hush!"  
"Well I'm right!"  
"Yes you are, but I'm talking: the hawks aren't common around here, they are seen but not often, thank the heavens."  
"Why, are they bad?" Cid frowned,  
"Of course! Where are you from?"  
"Eh, quite a long way away," he glanced around and waved a wing towards the distant oasis, "Over that way. I'm Cid, by the way, who are you?" the lionesses didn't look convinced but let it go.  
"I am Abuto," the darkpelted lioness said, "The hawks are a bad omen, they are not bad creatures, but they are followed by bad things," the others started whispering amongst themselves, Cid thought he heard 'naked ape' but he wasn't sure, "One has been seen, but not around here," Abuto continued, "Near the Outlands," she nodded towards the horizon, "There is an unnatural place, nothing lives there anymore but mice, apparently the hawk does too though, though I do not know more than that."  
"You knew more than me though, thank you!"  
"I tell you! Rafiki warns us against going there, it's a bad place, those who are out of the circle were once there, they left, but life is taken there and does not return to the earth, so is lost to the air, there are ghosts there!" her ears went back and the youngest lioness crouched down nervously.  
Cid was taken aback, but nodded, "Thank you," he said, "For the information and the warning, but I've got to go there."  
"Typical" growled Abuto, "for a scavenger to have no sense, you'll bring the bad things back to us!"  
"Hopefully, if I find what I'm looking for, I won't need to come back," he squawked and took off hurriedly when large paws were swiped at him, "Don't!" they cried, "Don't come back!"

_I wonder what they meant,_ Cid mused, _Maybe there have been poachers here._ He was suddenly very glad he wasn't human here.

---

"Merlin! Cid's gone!"  
"Oh?"  
"WHoot! Good riddance!"  
"I didn't think he'd have gone far, he didn't take anything, but he was making such a fuss about this stupid bird in The Pridelands the other day, I think he might have gone back!"  
"Did you check the ship?"  
"It's gone! I heard it take off last night, and it's not come back!"  
"Oh dear…"

---

Cid followed the direction given by the lionesses, by this time the air was hot and he soared almost the entire distance with barely a twitch of his wings, he soon spotted what the native big cats called 'unnatural', it was a camp, probably human, so it would seem there were humans native to this world too, though Cid had not seen them, there were two makeshift huts, one was falling down, besides that there were the remains of tents and a wooden and barbed wire fence around the outside. Landing awkwardly Cid hopped past a half buried skeleton still reaching for its rusted rifle, its clothes ruffled in the breeze. Regarding the half fallen down hut as a no-go, Cid loped to the second tent, there was the remains of a large horned beast by the door, it's skull was blown out, probably it had been shot, he sidled past it and into the hazy darkness of the hut. It didn't smell very good, like the smell that they'd found in the basement of the ShinRa mansion back in Nibelheim, this smell was the closest thing Cid could get to considering ghosts, it told of the bad things that had happened, of inhuman pain and cruelty. He hunched his shoulders and turned his dipped head around curiously, kneading the packed earth with his talons. He let his eyes get accustomed to the dim light, he peered into all the small crannies and nooks, found some horrible memoirs, ivory tusks, pelts, teeth and claws, his assumption about poachers seemingly correct.

But other than these grizzly items and the belongings of the humans who had been here, there was very little in this hut. Returning outside Cid realised how late it was getting and just how long he must have slept, "Well if he ain't hiding in that other hut then he ain't here," Cid muttered, going over to the pile of rubble, trying to pass it's self off as a building, with a hop, skip and a jump, it was lighter in this one, the sun was shining through a hole in the wall, this one had held supplies, tins and tins of things were piled up against the wall once, but now they were scattered across the floor, Cid nudged them out of the way with his beak to wander through them. Much of this place had fallen in so there was a lot less to look through, and Cid was about to give up the hunt when a sound outside caught his attention, he froze and peered against the low sun, he saw a silhouette against the glare then it was gone, too fast to be identified, he clicked his beak, unsure of what he'd just seen, but aware that the hyenas probably ventured out of the Outlands this far, he moved to go to the doorway, he had a choice, fly out of here straight away, or wait to see what was prowling around. Cid thought the choice was made for him when he spread his wings for balance and snagged a rotting drape of cloth, it pulled down with a load of tin cans and crashed to the ground, Cid shrunk back, but dove forwards again when something burst from the uncovered shelves and flew haphazardly towards the exit, Cid leapt at it, spreading his wings as he exited the hut, the hawk was right there, just in front of him, still gaining speed, he stretched out his neck and opened his beak to grab it, and screamed when a toothy jaw bit down on his leg.

He was swung around towards the ground by his leg even as he turned to bite the creature attacking him, he hit the ground hard and beat his wings downwards, hitting the creature which yelped with the blows, he flipped himself to his feet and pushed forwards, snapping his beak towards the other and leaping up to kick forwards, talons grasping the air, there was a cry as he came into contact with the creature, then paws were braced against his chest and he was thrown backwards, canid teeth snapped close to his face and he struggled to meet the glaring brown eyes, the creature pinning him down was having trouble holding him there, it was giving in under the strength of his wings, "CID!!!"

---

"I'm sorry, Yuffie,"  
"I know,"  
"I didn't mean to hurt ya,"  
"I know, its okay."

Cid sighed, sitting back on his haunches in the ship, Yuffie was sitting on the co-pilot's chair, there was an ugly gash across her cheek, it had bled badly, but didn't look as bad as it had first seemed, "I shoulda brought the Materia," he sighed, "What the hell are ya doing here anyway?" they'd come back to the ship once Cid had recognised her and had realised the hawk was far away by now.  
"I came here looking for you, Sora dropped me off here, we saw this ship, so he didn't worry about me not being able to get back."  
"Why were ya looking, I can look after my self, ya know!"  
"Oh really!?"  
"Yeah!"  
"Well I don't believe that! If you could look after your self, why are you so dependant on others!?"  
"What!?"  
"It's always one of the others who cooks, you were captain of the Highwind but **only** because of the crew refusing to work for the ShinRa! You refused to take control of Avalanche ever again after Cloud got better! You depend so much on others! Even back home! But you don't _CARE_ about them! Yes! I know you're missing something! But why are you so obsessed with finding this guy!? I found the sketch book! I don't know who he is! Maybe he was a friend we lost! I don't know! But you're worrying us and ignoring us! We're here for you but you don't seem to understand that! You're only interested in 'him'! I know what you were thinking in Atlantica! And I know that the guy in the sketch has the same face! But why is this so important!?"  
Cid gave her a long blank look, but the skin around his eyes tightened slightly and he drew his mouth into a straight line, he stood up and looked away, "Ya don't understand," he said, "You didn't understand then and you won't now,"  
"Understand then? When!?" but that's all he said, going then to the pilots seat and starting up the ship, it hummed into life, and shortly they were returning to Hollow Bastion.

"…Cid?"

"Tifa wants to send you back home. To Planet. She doesn't think this place is good for you."

"Just thought you might want to know."

---

"Cid! Yuffie! You're back!" the ship had barely landed and let it's passengers off when Tifa came running up to them, Cloud following sulkily, "Merlin told me everything! Cid what on Planet do you think you were doing!? You could have been hurt or killed out there and no…one… WHAT HAPPENED TO YUFFIE'S FACE!?" Yuffie had unsuccessfully been trying to hide the cuts on her cheeks, Cid had been hoping in vain she wouldn't notice, "Well I…"  
"I bet this is your fault Cid!"  
"Sorta, but…"  
"If that scars—"  
"For fucks sake woman will you **ever** let me explain!?"  
Tifa's face was livid but she clenched her jaw and said tersely, "Fine. Go ahead. Persuade me it's not your fault!"  
"No, I ain't gonna do that, 'cos it is my fault, I was fucken out my head trying to find that hawk, I'm sure ya'll want to know why, but that'll have to wait for later, Yuffie came to get me, and thank fucken Planet she did 'cos I don't know if I'd have come back otherwise! She bit my leg and I turned on her, kicked out and my talons caught her face, I didn't know that it was her!"  
Tifa sneered, "I don't know what's more unlikely, that you're actually telling the truth for once, which I have to say, is currently coming as a great surprise," Cid's expression darkened considerably and Yuffie frowned, "Tifa, that's—"  
"Or maybe I'm more surprised Yuffie bothered to go after you—"  
"Tifa!"  
"Hay! Little Miss Lockhart, I'm _flattered_ you're so concerned with our business, but if you were so worried that those cuts were gonna scar or get infected or whatever, you'd let me take Yuffie home, where we've got Materia! You might not care about her, but I do!" Cid, a hand between Yuffie's shoulders, ushered the girl past Tifa who stared after them, "I didn't mean..." before turning to Cloud, who was conspicuous by his absence, "Cloud! Oh not again…"

"You really care?" Yuffie sat down on the sofa by the finches, Hash and Thyme edged out of the way but Fitch came up to the bars and tried to peck her hair, she poked her finger at it and it tried ineffectually to gnaw on her.  
"'Corse I care," Cid said, rummaging around in the side board draws for the misplaced Materia, "What ya said earlier, ya were right, I've been totally ignorin' ya'll, that ain't fucken fair now, is it?" he straightened up, throwing the green orb of Cure into the air and catching it again, "Now, how's that cheek of yours?"


	10. The Snowfields

Chapter Nine  
The Snowfields

_The snowfields were frosted silver in the moonlight, they glowed softly, coldly. I shivered, fucken cold, wedged my hands under my coat, but even my fucken armpits are getting cold! Although… It__** is**__ pretty out here, can't deny that. The distant sea is so damn dark, the only change between it and the sky are the lights: stationary points of distant fire upwards, glittering white heads on the water below, there's no wind, that something to be fucken glad about! Cos I ain't big on all this cold shit…_

I looked up and around as I kicked out at the snow and shivered for another reason besides all this damn cold, and if ya wondering why I'm out here, it's 'cos that fucken Inn keeper don't let smokers smoke inside, and travellin' with these fools, who can blame me for wanting a smoke, right? Anyhow, the reason I shivered was the dim green glow on the glacier, it comes from over the cliffs, where, on the barest horizon line, there's the Northern Crater. It wasn't so long ago we walked all the fucken way there! Goodness knows why Cloud wanted to come back; I mean he's only after a bloody Chocobo! Ah hell, he's the boss, and I don't mind so much, I mean it IS nice here, during the day at least, and the kid's lettin' us chill for the most part (no pun intended), I don't mind that in the least, means I can go get them repairs on the ship up and running...  
"Who the fuck, is out on a night like this?" I leant forwards out of the circle of light from the Inn's lamp, out by the trees, a figure, some idiot or… yeah, thought so; the guy's movin', but ya wouldn't think it, kinda floats over the snow, least it looks like it from a distance, coarse if I went after him, there'd be footsteps in the snow…

There are footsteps in the snow, damn long, careful strides, I'm running along them, towards the man standing at the crest of the 'downgrade', he's watching me come closer, just standing there, his shapeless cloak obscuring him totally, his pale face blank in the half light, I don't stumble, but I want to, I want to fall over into the snow and make him worry, I want him to fucken come to ME for once, but he won't even lift his arms to me, not one, won't he greet me!?

He turns away as a I slow down and take the last few steps up to his position, insults and curses run through my head... He can't treat me like this, fucken bastard, what the hell does he think I am!? How can he fucken do this shit to me!? How can he act like nothing happened!? Like I don't fucken care!?  
…Because I fucken told him I don't care, not like that, "It's a one off, it's relief, it's friends mucking around…" It's one guy's heart tearing in two because .…

"Look at it Highwind, it's beautiful, isn't it."  
MOTHER FUCKER! "More like fucken eerie if ya ask me."  
"It is that… Do you think we'll defeat him?"  
Why can't ya think about US!? Us! Not Avalanche! Us! "Who? Sephiroth?"  
"Yes, he's strong, and getting stronger, every night we've been here I've looked out towards the crater…"  
Why are ya the only human in this group not to care-- "Oh? Ya really worried?"  
"Concerned perhaps… Concerned that we shall fail. It is daunting after all, an enemy this powerful, this malevolent."  
--bout relations? Or are ya still so hooked on that dead bitch? "According to Cloud he weren't always so bad."  
He hung his head, closed his eyes, "Maybe so," he said heavily, "but what he was then, doesn't change what he is now. A monster. As I am."  
"Bullshit!" 

_  
*** _

_  
"Are you angry with me, Highwind?"_

"You are, aren't you?" he sounds worried now,  
"Yeah, a bit… Ya ever getting over her?"

"Didn't think so."  
"You sound disappointed, why, do you have feelings for me?" he's joking; I can hear it in his voice, but…  
"Yeah."

"Yeah I do, didn't think I did, but I do, okay?" I sighed, shuffled a step away in the snow, I don't want to look at him, "Dunno when, why… But hay, I can't help it, right?" I think I jump a foot when his hand slides over my shoulder, gives it a gentle squeeze, guiding me towards the Inn, "No, no one can help it," he's so close, I can feel his leg brush against mine as we walk, I frown, not outta frustration or anything, just I'm trying to keep some control over myself… I don't think it's working…

I stopped, it made him stop too, and I looked up at him, I wonder how desperate I look, I think I'm crying and that can't be a good thing out in these temperatures, but it might just be the cold making my eyes water, I don't feel like crying… I feel like… I leant forwards and rest my forehead against his chest; his 'good' arm is resting on my shoulder, it's beginning to wrap around and I can feel him pressing his hand against my back, "Cid…"  
"When we go back to the Inn, what's going to happen?"  
"What do you want to happen?"  
"Don't talk like that, I don't want… don't… want…"

It's cold out here.  
I'm cold.  
But he's so very warm...


	11. Smoke on the Breeze

Chapter Ten  
Smoke on the Breeze

_"Hoi! Hoi! Why are you crying? Stop it! God damn it woman!" my nails dug into my forehead as I threw my hands up and snarled against my palms, they reeked of fuels and now of blood, "Stop it woman! Ya doing my fucken head in!" I looked out past my fingers at the cold figure in the shadow in the corner, it was scowling at me, my eyes turned back to the snivelling creature hunched over the worktop, her hand was bleeding, her face was slick with tears and smeared blood, then she was obscured by the dark clad man from the shadows._

"Cid," he said softly, and I knew the insufferable man was going to be sensible, "Just leave, for now," his eyes dropped sadly, "Go and work on the plane, relax, okay?" I grit my teeth, so hard my jaw creaked, and stormed out, refusing to look back. Honestly I felt like the biggest piece of shit you can imagine, fuck boy, what was I? The lowest fucker in town? Probably. I didn't mean to hurt her ya know? I just turned too fast, swung out too much. You know how it is! When ya angry ya just don't see things normal. I didn't mean to hit her…

"Highwind… Cid?" I looked up, the dark man from the shadows, who was so damn good at calming me down and pissing me off at the same time, was lurking in the shady confines of the house, his eyes were locked upon me and I just had to look away, shit he made me feel uncomfortable. Strange thing is, I'm pretty sure I asked him here.  
"What?" great, my voice cracked, haven't talked in a while, that's why, I've just been sitting out here tensing up my muscles and creaking my jaw, "What the fuck do you want?"  
"I want you to talk to her," bastard, he didn't even bat an eyelid, great, now I feel almost twice as guilty, "Fine," why the hell does he always make me feel like a fucken teenager, I know I've done wrong, but why the hell do I want to run of yelling cusses to hide behind a dumpster with my buddies and share a cig!? I ain't no fucken teenager! I feel my self spit over the fence and stomp past the man who's lack of sigh, movement or any emotion at all should have infuriated me more, but it didn't. Bastard, I swear. So why do I really want to just cling to him right now, he seems stronger than me, that's why, that's why I hate him and want to be with him all the time, the guy's my best friend, but I hate him. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm more fucked up than him, and he's pretty fucked up.

Shit. There she is, sitting all clean and sparkly at the table, you can smell the soap, I bet he helped her clean up; he couldn't wash away that bruise though. I curse the smugness worming up my spine with every fibre of my body. Oh lord now she's looking at me. I tried to keep my gaze steady, but those big brown eyes swimming at me from behind round portholes of glass just make me quail. I think my balls just walked out the door.  
"Hay," nice genius, ya hit a woman and all ya can say is that? "You okay?" no, duh!  
"I'm okay," God, her voice is smaller than she is, and she ain't big. I walked over and gingerly reached out, she doesn't even flinch bless her, I flinched when that guy still lurking out back first hit me, he'd had a nightmare, weren't his fault, scared the crap out of me, but I think he was less upset from the nightmare, than from when I flinched away when he tried to help me.

"No you ain't," I said, running my fingers over that ugly bruise, she's going to go out into town with that, and everyone out there in town is going to know what happened, and they're going to whisper, I hate it when they do that, like they're so squeaky clean! "Listen, I'm sorry, I didn't mean --"  
"I know, it's my fault," damn woman, there she goes taking the blame again, "You're stressed and I shouldn't have mentioned that, I'm so sorry."  
"Damn it," she looked up sharply from where her eyes had drifted: my boots, always my boots, people's eyes are drawn to my boots when they're down about something. Even me, my eyes end up on my boots! I've yet to meet anyone else whose boots are magnetised to attract negative emotions in people's eyes. Great, my boots are fucked up too. Positively fucked up?  
"Damn it, woman, I want to apologise, this is your house, ya put up with me, fuck, ya look after me! What would I do without you, eh? But you ask me a simple question and I blow up in your face," literally if you go by that mark, shit I think her cheek's split, "Now, that ain't fair."  
"Captain, what's got into you? You've apologised before now, but never like this, I'm beginning to wonder what happened to you when you were gone."  
"Hah, nothin' to do with that, ya know who's to blame," I wink, " out there, V…."  
"…Shit," Cid swore and bit his pillow, "Damn it, I nearly got his name that time… Wait a minute!"  
"'s too early Cid! Go back to sleep."

The sun was cool and pale through the morning fog, but Cid couldn't give a damn as he trekked through the barely awake town, his aim, the other side of Hollow Bastion, where he knew the woman from that odd dream lived, they'd never really talked much, him and her, but when they had crossed paths they'd got on fine. Cid was pretty sure she had a thing for him, but didn't give it much thought.

The house was dark when he got there. Cid resisted the urge to hammer on the door until she woke up, and hovered glumly and chilly in the pretty front garden she was so proud off. It smelt of honeysuckle, and smoke, now that he was watching the coil of blue-gray rise up from the smouldering end of his cigarette and waft away in the breeze…


	12. Crimson Glory

Chapter Eleven  
Crimson Glory

For the second time that day Cid found himself outside the house that wasn't the home of the woman he'd thought it was, if that is, the woman he thought it was, was indeed 'Shera' from his dream, -and he was doubting that it was a dream, it had been far too real, _'His'_ face had been too clear and the entire scenario, though obscure, had rung many bells. To Cid, it was a clear example of a suppressed memory if he ever saw one- the woman he saw now, bent over the rose bush, with her back to him, was not Shera though, he knew that even without looking at her face, he cleared his throat and she turned to him, "Oh," she said, "it's you again."  
"Ah, yeah, I thought I should apologise about before."  
"Before?"  
"Er… The whole screaming at you and running off thing?"  
She smiled, "Aptly put, won't you sit down, I'll only be a minute here, I'd quite like to know why you were at my house so early, I take it I wasn't the person you were looking for?"  
"No," Cid shook his head and perched nervously on the edge of the small bench, tucked away under an arch of jasmine, "Hay, were ya going somewhere? I don't want to hold ya up," the woman looked up, but not at Cid, and blinked at the air in front of her, "Going somewhere?"  
"The suit?"  
"Oh!" she laughed, it was almost coy, "I got it into my head I'd already got changed, no I'm not going out, just got back, it's so hard to find hiring scientists in this place" she waved it away to sit beside Cid, tugging on the hem of her above the knee skirt as she did so, Cid carefully ignored her, "So," she said crossing her long legs, "Why were you here?"  
"I was looking for the woman I thought lived here, we met sometime ago, and she asked me here to look at the research she'd done,… strange, I don't think we ever introduced ourselves—"  
"I'm terrible like that, I can know someone for ages and never know their names, it's awful isn't it?"  
"It can be awkward… Any how, I had this odd dream the other night, I've forgotten someone ya see, but I think she knew him, she certainly did in the dream, but now she's not here."  
"I'm sorry; I've lived here quite a while. You don't know her name?"  
"In the dream, it was Shera, but that might not be right."  
"Shera… Nope, I've not heard of her, sorry."  
"…Sierra… I think I might have misheard it, it might have been Sierra."  
But the woman shook her head, "I really am sorry, here, before I forget," she held out her hand, "I'm Lucrecia Crescent," that name meant something, a frown flicked over Cid's face, but he shook her hand anyway, "Cid Highwind," he said, "It's nice to meet you. Have we met before?"

They hadn't, it turned out, met before.  
It hadn't been long however, before Cid had figured out why she seemed familiar: she had the same 'non' living air about her as Aerith; she was pretty, and, it turned out, smart, maybe said 'sorry' too much, but all in all should have been a very attractive woman, but she wasn't, she was like a spectre and something made her seem transparent, though you couldn't actually see through her. She'd understood straight away Cid's awkwardness, "Don't worry," she'd said quietly, "I get it all the time, you know someone else… Who's dead?"  
"Two technically, Aerith and another, but we don't see him so much," he smiled sardonically, "thank Planet."  
"…Sephiroth," she breathed,  
"What? You know him!?"  
"I'm sorry,"  
"Why…?"  
"He's my son,"  
Cid's eyes widened and he jumped to his feet, "Wha? Wait! Lucrecia! I have heard of you, damn, I remember now!" she didn't move, just stared at her knees, "Of all people, you've got to know what's going on! Tell me!"  
"Tell you what?"  
"…Why can't I remember? Why is Sephiroth back?"  
"Well, as with most things, they are connected, however minutely. Memories Cid. Your memories, the memories of your friends, they helped open the gate wider—"  
"Gate?"  
"Yes, Merlin let Avalanche through, correct?"  
"…Yeah."  
"Aerith was once one of your number, when Merlin asked for 'Avalanche' you remembered her, and in this universe, where the boundary between Light and Dark are so clear, the boundary between Life and Death are…. Blurred: Heartless, even Nobodies, they're creatures of the Darkness, born from living creatures who have lost their lives; ghosts, now they are different, a ghost may dwell either side of the shadow-border lines, in either Light or Darkness, I'm under the impression that the denizens of this world are confident in their belief that the Light and Dark are in direct correspondence to Good and Evil?"  
"Yeah, that's right, so you and Aerith are… good ghosts?"  
"Yes, you could say that. 'Benevolent' is maybe a better term, after all, I can no longer consider myself… 'good'," she shook her head, "Anyway, yes, Aerith and I are in the Light, Sephiroth, my guileless son… He remains in Darkness."  
Cid raised his eyebrows, "Guileless? I'm not sure I'd say that!"  
"You would blame him for the cruelties done unto him?"  
"…Na, not even I'm that harsh. But how'd you get here?"  
"When Merlin asked for Avalanche, you and your friends remembered a time when Aerith was a member of your group, something you must always remember Cid, is that magic is powerful, but stupid, it will try to be helpful, it saw in your minds the lost member of Avalanche, saw that you considered Avalanche to be made of 8 members, where it could only see 7, it looked for Aerith, who was thought of so fondly, and being unrestricted by planes," she waited for Cid to disentangle himself from that word,  
"Ya mean like… Other Worldy Planes?"  
"Yes,"  
"Right, I'm with ya,"  
"Being unrestricted by planes, the gateway crossed into our Planet's Lifestream, where Aerith was to be found, so she could cross over."  
"And let me guess, Sephiroth followed her?"  
"Indeed."  
"And you?"  
"Yes, I saw them go, and I heard the message from Merlin, at the time I had hoped it may give me a chance to, not repent, to try and fix something I had broken a long time ago."  
"It didn't work?"  
"I don't know yet."  
"Hmn, so how is this connected to why I don't remember?"  
"Think about it, how many members, including Aerith, are there in Avalanche?"  
"Cloud…Tifa…Barrett…" Cid muttered under his breath, "I'm counting 8, but off the top of my head I'd say 9."  
"You're missing one, and no one can remember who that is, not even me, and that fact pains me, for now, let us call this missing figure 'Chaos' as he certainly seems to be creating chaos," Cid frowned, it didn't seem entirely appropriate somehow, but it was only a temporary nickname, it couldn't hurt, "Let us hypothesise that 'Chaos' was a member of Avalanche, however, for a reason, say a conflict, he did not come with the group to this universe, the other members of Avalanche knew that he did not intend to come here, remaining instead with the other members who stayed on Planet but who we remember,"  
"Nanaki and Reeve, Barrett…"  
"Exactly."  
"So why forget 'Chaos' and not them?"  
"Why did Nanaki and the other two stay behind?"  
"Nanaki had to look after Cosmo, Reeve was needed by the WRO, and Barrett couldn't leave his daughter and the oil."  
"So they had a reason, no doubt the rest of Avalanche was considering that when the gateway opened, so this the magic would have known, 'Chaos' however may have been out of mind, maybe his presence was not so often considered?"  
"…When I do remember him, he's awful quiet, but he's strong somehow…"  
"So, let us assume he was not remembered by Avalanche, he was able to look after himself, so no one worried, and thus he was not considered by the magic, it didn't go to look for him."  
"And we forgot him… why?"  
"The conflict was between two members of Avalanche," she said confidently, "'Chaos' and another, that other was angry and the trouble between them terrible, it hurt, he, or she, wished to be able to forget."  
"So that's **it** one of us just _wanted_ to forget, so we all did? Why? The magic trying to be useful!?"  
"Very possibly, or maybe a powerful being in this world -there are many we don't know of- saw that pain and anger and heard the wish and wiped all memory of 'Chaos'."  
"Why doesn't that only affect the person 'Chaos' fought with then, and why doesn't Cloud forget Sephiroth, of all things, of all people, I would have thought that would be the one thing any of us would want to forget!?"  
"Do you want to forget that fight with Sephiroth, you saved the world?"  
"…No."  
"Well then, there is the answer to you second question, the first, well if only one of you forgot then another may remind you, here, in this world, there is no recollection of 'Chaos' at all."  
"…So that's how they're connected, he didn't come through when he should have, and you three ghosts did when you shouldn't have?" she nodded slightly, "And Shera?" Lucrecia looked back at her knees, "You do know her, don't ya!"  
"…Yes, but I cannot say much, she was here, but left back to Planet, her being here was… a glitch, she should not have come through,"  
Cid frowned, _So who sent her back, 'Chaos?'…_ "Why did I forget her?"  
"I do not know, but I presume that it was easier to forget her than make her forget."  
"…Some wish."  
"Excuse me?"  
"It must have been some wish, to make everyone forget. I can't imagine how pissed off whoever it was must have been to make it."  
"Can't you?"  
Cid scowled at her, "What? Are you saying I made that wish? Why would I?"

Lucrecia didn't answer straight out, instead she stood and returned to the rose bush, "I wonder," she said softly, her fingers ghosting over the soft blooms, "How many people have picked roses because they thought them so beautiful, only to find that they die so quickly in captivity, and would be better appreciated left to their own devices on the plant and merely visited."  
"I don't understand, why are we talking about plants?"  
"People make mistakes, Cid, I've made many in my life, some I regret more than others, some less. To pick a rose, to take something, only to find you'd rather it be back where you found it, that is a common mistake."  
"So, what, are you saying this guy and I met, 'cos of something I did, because of Avalanche? But then I decided I'd rather it had never happened?"  
"Possibly."  
"Every rose has it's thorns," he muttered, "Or… We were close weren't we, he always seems to care in my dreams, or… Did I care… And that's why I'm dreaming… Did I ruin it? We were close, and I ruined it… And regretted it?"  
"Possibly."  
"You're not very helpful ya know…"  
"I can't say more, I don't know. Here," she stepped away from the rose bush and reached out, "Take it, it may bring you luck."  
"Eh… Thank you."

When Cid left, Lucrecia remained by the jasmine and honeysuckle, but she wasn't alone for long, another woman poked her nose out of the door, she was shorter than Lucrecia, her hair was tied back like the biologist also, but it was mousy brown, not auburn. Shera sighed heavily and walked as far as the garden gate to watch Cid walk away, "I hate lying to him, I really hate it."  
"If he knew you were here, he'd demand to know what's going on, and you'd give in, I know you would, don't worry this is for the best."  
"How do you know?"  
Lucrecia turned back to the delicate flowers, through the white blooms of the jasmine the bloody red of roses burst through like gunshot wounds blooming forth from pale skin, she sighed heavily and closed her eyes against the sight "Because... I must attempt to repair the heart I broke, and your Highwind is the means to the end."  
"...I hope he'll be okay."  
"His quarry is curious now, Highwind won't have to go far to find that which he seeks."


	13. The God of War

Chapter Twelve  
The God of War

The sun was low, the clock turned and chimed eight times.  
"1…Cloud, 2… Barrett, 3… Tifa, 4… Aerith, 5…Nanaki, 6… Yuffie, 7…Cait Sith, 8… Me…" Cid stopped pacing in time to the chimes and looked up at Merlin's front door, for 3 hours Cid had lurked around the valleys surrounding Hollow Bastion, he'd sat by crystals reeking of Mako, he'd thrown pebbles into the valleys, he'd pushed slates over the edge and seen them skipping away below, taking friends with them from the shale, he'd even kicked discarded armour around the valley floors, the hollow shells of a hundred Heartless, but the afternoon had drawn in, the tormenting thoughts and memories had continued to flicker though Cid's head, and it had just drawn colder, colder without, colder within. The pilot had looked upon the ground and looked upon the sky, he'd closed his eyes and he'd been silent, he'd run and he'd screamed, a thousand echoes crying back from the walls… But the memories were still there, some, a past he wished to forget…

_"Captain!"  
"Get out of here!"  
"We can't--"  
"GO! Get the parachutes! Go with the others!"  
"Captain, the reactor! It's all happening too fast!!"  
"What!?"  
"The explosion exacerbated the problem, sir! It's going into melt down!"_

"What do we do, sir!?"  
"Get out! Just get out! There isn't anything more we can do! Damn it! Damn it! It was meant to save us! Not blast us out of the sky! Aerith what the fuck is going on!?!"

Some memories he wished to remember, words or a laugh, someone with him, but it was slipping away, like standing of soft desert sand under foot, each step makes the grains swell up, they cover your toes and are so very real, but shift to scoop them up and they're gone, whispering away through your fingers; step wrong, and your footing goes too, washed away from under your feet by the tide…  
The sliding memories were taking his footing away with them.  
The words he heard were someone else's, but the voice was his own; the laughter held no substance, only the knowledge that it had existed, and always glittering, shining it would hang in the air, almost tangible and within reach, then… Gone, nothing more than the colours of the wind tugging cold and cruel at Cid's coat and scarf; until the coiling white material pulled away and snagged on the rocks, he gazed up at it and held in his hands a tiny memory, small and naked and helpless, struggling to get away from it's helper: A hand reaching out, fast through the lazy snowflakes of the past to snatch an errant scarf of another time, reaching out to catch it and return it, _"Careful Highwind, you might have lost it, then we'd never be rid of your complaints of the cold."_ Cid whimpered and stepped forwards through the snow drifts of yesteryears towards Gaea's Cliff and the warmth proffered, his boots hit hard shifting rock and he pulled his scarf back from the stones that held it, with a rip the old material came free, Cid sighed, it would need sowing up, like before, like when it was sown up there, but why was that, and why hadn't he got another scarf, that old tear was a bad one…_ "Oh! Cid, your scarf…! I'm sorry…"  
"Na! It's okay! Don't worry about it!"_ biting back tears and keeping out the cold with the scarf, Cid stumbled back towards town, holding the memories in his hands and blowing on them gently so they didn't die.  
His steps through town went unnoticed, who noticed a man blowing on his hands to keep out the cold at this time of year?

He'd put the memories in his breast pocket and hesitated in the square outside Merlin's home until the clock chimed, wandering back and forth and whispering to his treasure nestling in his pocket, he feared he was beginning to loose his mind, but then he'd take the crimson glory, the red rose, from the loop in his belt and it would, in some way, tell him otherwise, and he'd keep it close for a while. It was close now, clutched to his tight chest, as he gazed up at the house, the windows glowed warmly despite the curtains and he could see shadows against those! An hourglass figure, long straight hair, "…Tifa…" he tried to say but it died in his throat, "8… me," he said hoarsely, "Who… Who's 9… 9 after 8, always, always coming after 8…" he reached up to grasp the door knocker…

---

"I'm getting worried, Cloud," Tifa sat down again, unable to sit still the martial artist had been standing up, walking around and sitting down again at intervals, but Cloud was in no mood to humour her paranoia, Cid had always been prone to wandering when something was bothering him, and according to Yuffie –currently curled up at the finch end of the sofa- he was definitely being bothered by this--this issue, and he could relate, having lost his own past only not so long ago; that had been painful, realising that his past was a lie, or rather, what he had thought his past was, it would seem even trying to remember was the painful part for Cid though, Cloud frowned when he realised Tifa was glaring at him, he'd not been in her good books since running off the other day, "What?"  
"I said, do you think he's okay?"  
"No."  
"What?" Tifa, Yuffie and Aerith all looked at him sharply,  
"Sorry to be so blunt," he shrugged, "But no, I think he's in trouble, and I know--!" he added quickly, "—I know you want to help him, but I don't think we can, I think…" he sighed,  
"What do you think, Cloud?" Aerith stood away from watching Merlin's simmering experiments,  
"Well, I think the one person who could help him, is the one he's forgotten."  
"You remember!?" Yuffie now had sprung to her feet,  
"No," Cloud shook his head, Tifa snorted irritably and moved to the window, but didn't look out of it, she just didn't want to look at them it seemed, "No, but I do know a little about Cid, it's not his planes, or rather the lack of them, that's worrying him,"  
"He's not been worked up about flying at all," Yuffie said, "That's just disturbing."  
"Exactly, so something's distracting him, I remember talking to a crewman once, from the WRO, I don't know what we were talking about exactly, but he said he was amazed that Cid just forgot his was at the helm of the Sierra,"  
"Why did he?"  
"Because someone came in, I don't remember who, or if I was ever told, but the WRO man said someone came into the room and the Captain just became focused totally on them."  
"Same person as now, do you think?" Tifa looked back around, "It would make sense, if they could distract him from flying before; they could surely do it again, right?"  
"Well it sounds reasonable," Aerith said, sounding strangely absent as she ran a finger around the rim of a bottle, "But who is this mysterious person?"  
Cloud sighed heavily, was she even interested? He liked Aerith, was glad she was here, but there were days where he wished it had been Zack and his indomitable curiosity, not the flower girl, who'd been brought back, but… he glanced at the woman from the corner of his eye, would she ever allow that?  
"I don't know," he said, "Yuffie. Any ideas?"  
"Nope! Oh! Wait!" she didn't explain, just sprinted out of the room, when she returned it was with sketchpad in hand, she flicked through some pages, "Oops, missed it… Huh?"  
"What?" Tifa demanded,  
"This wasn't here before," Yuffie picked up a piece of paper left in the folds, it was stiff, like thin card, unfolding it she blinked wide eyed at the photo, then stuffed it into the pocket of her shorts.  
"What was that?"  
She turned to Cloud, who was watching her curiously, "Nothing!" she blurted, and no one believed her, "Here, this was what I was going to show you," she handed the sketch to Cloud, "Know who he is?"  
"…" he shook his head, "No, Tifa?"  
"Nope! Nice looking guy though, who drew this?"  
"Cid I think,"  
"Really? I didn't know he was such an artist…! The door?"  
Aerith turned to look at it, "Might be the artist," she giggled, and went to answer it.

---

Cid gazed at his shadow in the cup of tea that had found its way into his hands, he was almost ready to ignore it, not liking to trust things that seem to magically materialise places, but Aerith assured him that Merlin was out of the house, "Visiting," she said, but not where he was visiting to.

"Where've you been, Cid, we were worried," Tifa sat down beside him,  
"I know," he said, "Sorry about that, I guess I've been worrying all of ya…"  
"You have," Cloud nodded, "but we understand."  
"How can we help?"  
"I'm not sure you can," he said, sipping tea, "I don't know if anyone can," Aerith returned from the kitchenette with the rose in a vase, "I do appreciate the offer though."  
"What are you going to do?"  
Cid looked up at Cloud, the young man's icy eyes were averted to the ground, not an uncommon sight, "Dunno, but I think the guy I'm after is close, I feel him…" he glanced around at the uncomfortable silence following this remark, "What?"  
Tifa shook her head, "Yuffie told you right? I… Well we, we think you should go home, back to Rocket Town."  
Cloud smirked, "Tifa thinks the lack of altitude here is affecting your head."  
Tifa scowled, "I'm worried about his health, Cloud! I think he needs rest!"  
"Tif'! Look, I appreciate it! I do! But, I just gotta find this guy, then all this shit that's been happenin', I think it'll go away. I think the dreams'll go away. Right? Just give me some time, guys?"  
Cloud glanced at the girls, Aerith shrugged, "Well I agree with Cid, I'm not entirely sure sending him home will make him better -if there's something wrong- so it's probably best if he remains here, and finds out who this hypothetical man—"  
"He's real enough."  
"Well, this man then, it's probably best he finds out who it is, and how they're connected."  
"I'm with Aerith," Yuffie said, "That and I want to know too."  
Tifa frowned and looked to Cloud, who shrugged, "It's up to him, we can't force Cid into going back," Cid smiled in relief, he would have had trouble facing down the warrior, it had become something of an instinct to obey the younger man, even though Cid's arguments might make a outside spectator think otherwise, a year of fighting, not just for your own life, but for the world, under the good command of one man makes you inclined to a certain level of submission, "No, I wish you good luck Cid, I hope you find what you're looking for."  
"Fine," Tifa sighed, "You're probably right anyhow, I won't send you home."

---

Cid agreed not to do anything rash until tomorrow, he'd been a little put out that they had assumed whatever he was going to do was going to be rash, but as Cloud said, "If it's not mechanical accuracy then everything you do is rash," it wasn't exactly true, but it was close enough. They shouldn't have said anything though, it was an unconscious challenge to his mind, and worse still there was no 'guilt-safeguard' Cloud remained quiet, gave no orders or instructions, and Cid had no qualms with disobeying the women.

It grew late, the witching hour drew closer and Cid with a yawn and painfully cracking stretch announced he was going to bed, "Ain't as young as you kids," he'd said, and Merlin, who'd returned by this time, had snorted in reply. Only minutes after he'd left, Yuffie said she was going to bring him up a warm drink, because he probably wasn't going to sleep well and it might help. However everyone jumped out of their seats when there was a crash of ceramic and Yuffie ran, helter-skelter, down the stairs and into the room, "He's gone! The idiot's gone!"  
"What?"  
"How?"

"I don't know! He must of climbed out of the window, or jumped, or something!"  
Tifa growled and ran to the small bedroom, Yuffie was telling the truth, Cid was gone, and the moth-eaten curtains were waving in a breeze from the open window. Stepping over a rapidly cooling pool of spilt milk Tifa leant out of the window; the alley was devoid of people, so Cid hadn't jumped and broken his neck, not that that was likely with his ability, but it also meant he'd not stopped and reconsidered what he was doing, rather, he'd moved fast, she sighed and looked imploringly at the watching stars and worlds, over head a bright red star was rising, Tifa watched it's barely perceptible movement higher and higher, as she did so, something happened, something she'd not seen in a long while, not since the return of the worlds lost to Darkness when they'd first met Sora, a star, flickering into life. The light burst into existence and then faded to join the red star in brightness and colour, the woman looked up at them and it was as if the two stars looked back…

---

Cid's feet hit the ground heavily and his breath caught as he fell into a crouch; had anyone heard him? No one came running, so he took to his heels and vanished into the back allies of Hollow Bastion.

Spring was growing later; the night air was considerably warmer now than when Cid had first opened his eyes to this new world -new for him- never-the-less, the breeze was still cool enough to be uncomfortable. Cid didn't know where he was going exactly, he was throwing (as he often did) caution to the wind, and trusting his gut instinct, which was taking him currently up the flight of stairs to the walk way leading to the old bailey, which was lit by the moonlight shining through the windows. Cid slowed to a walk and drifted through the pools of light, his gaze remained focused on the valleys beyond the walls, but there was nothing out there to hint at his eventual goal. The courtyard was in shadow, the broken crumbling steps into the Great Maw lead down into darkness, a crane was against the far wall, it's claw hung menacingly over the exit of the bailey, the top of this crane, and the wall it stood against, were lit up silver and blue. There was a series of old 'windows' set into the inner wall, arrow slits? Climbing up the rubble, Cid peered through one, back towards the city, his eyes fell upon the heights of Hollow Bastion, and against the flank of the peculiar turrets was the board walkway that was often the chosen haunt of Aerith, and according to Sora, the Keyblade Welder had met Sephiroth there…  
The stars glittered, Cid blinked, puzzled, at two burning red stars, they gleamed at him from over the walkways. Drawing back, Cid proceeded down into the valley; he glanced nervously towards the illuminated maw, then turned right, and trudged up the slight incline, the road leading around Hollow Bastion. The walkway, deserted now, gave Cid the creeps, maybe it was the copper pipes leading up to unseen heights on one side, or the sheer drop on the other, maybe it was the fear of meeting Sephiroth here, without any weapon or ally. Hugging himself, Cid peered over the railings… And heard a voice—

_"It feels a little strange, doesn't it Highwind, us being all together after all this time?"  
"Heh, I thought ya meant being back in this shithole, man, why'd we come here, this place is fucken depressing!"  
"I know, we'll be going soon…"  
"Whatcha thinking about?"  
"I was just thinking that… It has been a long time since I was here, maybe I should…"  
"Hmn?"  
"Maybe I should go see Lucrecia…"  
"__**What!?**__"_

—shaking his head of another distant voice, he peered into the darkness to the lower path, Cid saw a figure cloaked in dark blood, half hidden in the wall's shadow, it was turned away, but obviously in conversation with the second person on the path: however you looked at this figure, it was darkness, maybe a Heartless, or… Cid's eyes widened, "Organisation XIII…!" the darkness clad figure turned sharply to face him, a cloud of purple-tinged-nothing blossomed into existence behind it and it stepped backwards into it, the red caped figure stepped forwards, "Wait—"

_"Wait, Highwind, listen, I just think…"  
"Think!? Think what!? For fucks sake! I thought ya were over her!?"  
"I am, but I…"  
"Then just forget about her! She ain't good for ya!"_

Cid turned and ran for the steps, not trusting the hard-to-determine drop over the wall, when he reached the walk way leading one way down into the belly of the city and the other to a dead end, the man in red was just vanishing around the corner, "Hay! Wait!" he called after the writhing tail end of the cape, "Hay don't run!! ...Shit…" he hurried after—

_"Where is he?"  
"He asked me not to—"  
"Where Is He?"  
"…The cave, behind the waterfall… Cid please! Don't go after him!"  
"Fuck that! I'm so sick of this!"  
"You're jealous Cid! Why? He just wants to be able to remember, his past is important to him!"  
"Why the fuck does he want to fucken hold on to all that shit that happened!? Didn't he __**want**__ to forget!?"_

—and skidded roughly to a halt, the other man was at the rails edge, the dead end looked terrifyingly true to it's name, if this man was so desperate to get away, what might he do to make his escape permanent, "Hoi!" Cid called, not moving, "Who are ya? Why've ya been followin' me?"  
Not turning to face him the other said: "I've not been, you've been following me, I only came here to find out why."  
"Why did ya think?" Cid grudgingly admitted that he had followed the stranger to The Pride Lands,  
"…I couldn't imagine," the stranger's voice had grown stronger now, it sounded like brandy tasted, and sent shivers of hot and cold up and down Cid's body, "I was under the impression you never wanted to see me again."  
"So we did know each other…—"

_"Vincent!! HOI!"  
"Highwind!? What are you doing here?"  
"I came to find you! I thought I fucken asked ya not to come here!?"  
"I'm sorry, I had to…"  
"Why!? Why do ya hold on to that bitch!? Haven't I given ya every-fucken-thing I can!? What more CAN I fucken give!?"  
"Cid, I don't want more, I just need to come here sometimes…"  
"No! No! This is fucken unfair! Don't ya know I'm fucken terrified!? Ya gonna do what she did to you, to me!"  
"Highwind…"  
"No! I hate it! No matter what I do, it's not gonna be enough is it!?"_

—Cid groaned and rubbed his palm against his temple, "Shit… I…" he looked up, "That's why, that why we didn't come here together wasn't it…"

"I ended it, I fucken ended it… Heh, didn't know I went for guys…" he swallowed nervously, "No matter what I did, it was never gonna be enough, was it? Because it was the same for you… Everything was the same, that was… their legacy, for the SOLDIER's it was the Mako in them, for us, it was the memories, the ShinRa, that's what they left us, the fear of abandonment… That's right, isn't it?"

"I, I know I'm right… I'm finally figuring it all out… I was angry, because I thought ya were gonna leave, whenever ya weren't paying attention to me… And, I hated it, I hated it because I hated how I'd forget ya… Lucrecia couldn't abandon ya again, she couldn't move from that cave, and I always had the skies, when I was there, I hated my self, because I forgot ya… I couldn't fucken stand that… But that's how I knew that ya forgot me when ya were in that cave…"  
"Highwind…"  
"Vincent! That's your name right? What I did…" he hung his head, "Yellin' at ya for wantin' to not forget what happened, it was inexcusable, and… I can't believe I forgot so much, forgot everything… But… But it's comin' back now… I… I really did love you…"  
"It was reciprocated, believe me."  
Cid stepped closer, "Did ya go to the cave to forget?"  
"I did, yes," the other man, Vincent, dipped his head, but he was still turned away.  
"That was the problem really, we didn't have a choice, because of what happened to us before, and we were terrified of being thrown away again, so we shut it out when we could! All we had was each other really, and our own fucken fear drove us apart—" his throat caught and Vincent shifted,  
"You're right, Highwind, we should have been helping each other, shouldn't we, we were really rather foolish."  
"Heh yeah," Cid sniffed, realising belatedly that he was crying, "Vince… I need help now," he moved forwards,

"My head's so mixed up, I can't think straight… When I came here, I forgot everything about ya, and… and I can't sort out all my memories… I barely know how we first met…" he stepped closer,  
"You screamed at me, I scared you."  
"I don't know how we became friends, because we were friends, right?" closer,  
"Yes, you first talked to me on a beach of Wutai."  
"…I don't remember what ya look like," Cid brought his hand up, brushed a cascade of ebony, soft as silk, hair from the other's shoulder, Vincent turned minutely, and Cid saw a sliver of pale skin and a burning red eye, again he swallowed nervously, but gently lay his hand on the other's shoulder to turn him so they were facing…

---

"Vincent?"  
"Yes, Highwind?"  
"…I'm sorry, for what happened, for what I said."  
"I know. Don't worry."  
"Will ya help me?"  
"If you'll help me?"  
"'Corse I will!"  
"Then yes, of course. Thank you, Highwind."


	14. Before the Fire

Chapter Thirteen  
Before The Fire

_  
"Not what we give,  
But what we share,  
For the gift  
without the giver  
Is bare."_

The gateway, balanced on a pin head point on Merlin's raised centre floor area, glowed and fluctuated through the spectrum, sometimes vanishing into the verges of the ultraviolet. Cid hung back, looking awkward, avoiding the tearful goodbyes that were bubbling out of the girls, who'd just realised the finality of leaving Aerith now. Cloud was out, getting the most of the crisp cold air before they returned to Planet and he was forced, for simplicities sake, to accompany Tifa back to Midgar.  
Yuffie would be staying in Rocket Town for a day or two before Cid took her back home, unless she decided to walk and Vincent… Well, there things got really complicated, Vincent had come back here for a while, and then he'd vanished, the note left on Cid's pillow had promised that he'd return before they left for Planet, but that he still had some unfinished business to deal with. Cid knew they had a lot of issues to work out, and only hoped Vincent hadn't had second thoughts and skipped town. Yuffie glanced over at him, and smiled, she was nervous too, only Cid had really got his memories of Vincent (and for that matter, Shera) back, and he was still a partial stranger to the others, but Yuffie at least knew that this wasn't just some strange trick; she'd returned a sketch to Cid showing the two men from some time ago.

_"Hay, Cid, look, I found this, it was tucked into your sketchbook and fell out. No one else has seen it!"_

It was currently unfolded on top of Cid's wallet, which was on top of his lap. It was a confident link back to a past he wanted to recall to now. He didn't know where it had come from, but he had a vague recollection of a photo showing the same thing, maybe it was at home… Or maybe Shera had drawn this after seeing this scenario… Either way, the picture wasn't leaving Cid's person until Vincent came home… Home… Heh, now that's a thought, was where Vincent called home… Where Cid called home?  
"Where is home anyhow?" he breathed…

***

"Cid! It's time to go!"  
"What?!"  
"…I'm sorry."  
"No! I'm not leaving until he gets here!"  
"But Cid—"  
"Highwind? I'm sorry I'm late."  
"Vincent!? I was worried!"  
"You were?"  
"Hell yeah! I want to go home, and I couldn't do that with out ya!"  
"I feel so loved."

"Hay Cid?"  
"Hmn? Yeah Aerith?"  
"…Did you ever find Shera?"  
"No, do ya think she's back on Planet?"  
"Probably."  
"…She's got a hellova lot to answer for. I hope she knows that!"

"Goodbye Aerith, it was good to see you again."  
"You too, Vincent, look after Cid won't you, you know he's totally useless, but he really does love you."  
"I know that now, I only wish I hadn't put him though so much."  
"Well, at least you both know better than to take this for granted hmn?"  
"Yes, true. But next time, if you think we're taking something for granted, just show up with a white sheet and chains and scare us into realising that?"  
"What? Do you think I was behind all this?"  
Vincent smiled, "No, but I think you knew about it."  
"WOoooo! Chains it is!"

"Come on you guys!"  
"Comin' brat! Ya don't have to rush us!"  
"Goodbye Aerith, tell Zack I said 'hi'."  
"See you Merlin, give my love to Sora and Leon and all!"  
"It feels strange, leaving this place…"  
"Hay, Vince what was that unfinished business?"  
"…I had some prospective business partners I had to say 'No' to."  
"A definitive 'no' was it?"  
"Very definitive."  
"Welp, I got no idea what ya talkin' about, but if it had anything to do with that Organisation guy who was talkin' to ya, I'm happy for ya."  
"Thank you, Highwind."


	15. Epilogue

Epilogue

Three weeks had passed since they'd returned from the parallel universe of Sora and his native companions, it had been spring there, here it was mid summer, the grass was tall and rippled like water, a sea of green in all directions up to the woodlands, the mountains, the road cut a winding dusty trail through the waving stems towards the Nibel Mountains and around the coast to Nibelheim itself, also to the north, where a small town, self contained and quiet, marked the ferry dock that had once been a strong link to Bone Village, when it had been a bustling tourist spot, that link had faded and died with the end of the Space Program, for it had been the thing to do for nearly a decade, particularly with soldiers on leave, to travel through the mountains, across the plains, see the rockets and go across the sea to Bone Village, before going up to the sky lodge for a well deserved rest. It had all been done as close to the lap of luxury as most people at the time could get, along the roads old land trains and coaches lay forgotten at pit stops, and the money, held in tight fists for so long, had almost run out at the hot spots. Cid's returning to Rocket Town after the Meteor threat, should have been more than welcome, it heralded the return of _The Highwind_ airship, and the chance to start up new business, letters home from the crewmen who'd lived in the town had been full of promises, promises Cid couldn't keep, he returned with money for their pitiful economy, but the ship was crippled, the ShinRa gone, and with them the chance to revive her, for a time, even Cid was losing hope, until Reeve Tuesti brought him a new offer, then suddenly came the chance to have a new ship, a new job, and –so long as Cloud didn't catch wind of it- rebuild _The Highwind._

Only one ship was in Rocket Town now, _The Sierra_ was out on a mission for Reeve, nothing serious Cid was assured, and _The Highwind_ was hovering out half a mile away, the sound of her engines, even running on stolen, illicit, Mako, was a sweet sound to her Captain, who'd not heard or seen her in too long.

The sun was warm, the breeze was soft and the company was good.  
_The Bronco_'s wing was hot, but not uncomfortably so, under Cid's stomach where he lay sprawled, half leaning against her fuselage, sitting beside Cid, long legs swinging lazily, Vincent cradled a cup of tea in his hands, as Cid himself had for a while, but his drink had vanished pretty quickly, they weren't talking much, they were thinking, thinking about what Shera had explained to them.

_"I was so upset when I heard about you and Mr Valentine fighting, Mz Lockhart told me what happened, so when you all left to go help your friends in that far away place, and I saw him slip through the gateway after you, but apparently without your knowledge, I just had to follow. See I was worried, I know what you are like, both of you, so stubborn at times and then apologising before you understand why. I thought it could be the end of your relationship, and you were so wonderful together.  
"When I went through the gateway though, everything went white, or was it gray… I was so afraid, I hadn't stopped to consider that I wasn't meant to go through, magic is tricky stuff after all, then out of the nothing I heard her voice, Lucrecia's that is, and she helped me out. I admit I was scared, I thought she was dead, but she explained that she had the same goal as me in mind, well, it would turn out that way in the end anyhow, she wanted to help heal Vincent and said that he still didn't trust Cid not to hurt him after what she did, I thought she was being a little unfair on herself, but then, I don't know the full story, do I?  
"So I told her what had happened, though she seemed to anticipate a lot of it, do you think she already knew? So we decided to amalgamate our efforts and try to help, she claimed to be unable to wander freely, in case someone from Avalanche saw her, that wasn't allowed, because she was a sort-of-ghost, but I saw Miss Gainsborough, personally I think Lucrecia was just afraid of what might be said, or wanted to avoid Mr Valentine, so it was left up to me to do the shopping and everything, but I'm used to that—Oh, no that's not a complaint!  
"After I told Lucrecia about how we'd met up that one night, she warned me against talking to you in case my presence disturbed your memories too quickly, please don't ask me how she knew about the amnesia, but she was adamant that we had to be careful just how much you remembered at once, or it could hurt you. Since I'd already agreed to see you again, she told me to keep out of the way, so that eventually, if you came to find me, you would only find her, and she might be able to direct you with some clues, personally I think she was out right lying, but it must have worked on some level, right, after all you got your memories back?  
"We saw you two together that was the only warning we had that you were likely to be leaving soon… Although thinking about it, it's no real reason to think that. Now, I have to say here, I have my suspicions about Lucrecia, she opened a new gateway to let me back through, but I didn't think she was able to do that."  
"She did that?"  
"Yes, Captain, that's how I got back before you."_

"Vince…?"  
"Cid, I'm worried, if Lucrecia has discovered that power, do you think that…"  
"Ya ain't gonna be positive and suggest that we learn it and go for a vacation are ya?"  
"No. Cid what if Sephiroth does the same?"  
"Heh, we don't even know if he came back with us, fucker could still be there."  
"…That's right… We don't know…"


End file.
